Everything But The Girl - Fuse (half speed mastered)

Label: Buzzin' Fly
Format: 180 gram vinyl LP + booklet
Cat: EBTG 015V
Released: 20 Apr 23
Genre: Indie/Alternative
Tags: Dance, Indie Dance, House, Downtempo

Preview


Everything But The Girl have transposed themselves from fragile indie pioneers to cross-fertilising their unique songwriting with drum & bass and house in the 90s, with the likes of 'Walking Wounded' becoming unexpected dancefloor anthems. True experimenters, the duo of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt now continue to tap into today's zeitgeist - making their comeback in 2023, and arriving without prior announcement, this time they turned their tender production choices to styles such as future house and UK garage. Echoes of Bicep and Overmono teem on this record, as heartfelt retellings of personal strife and brushes with death make up its lyrical subjects.

What Does Half-Speed Mastering Mean?
Half-speed mastering is the process of creating a half-speed master record, which was popularized by Stan Ricker with Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs in the late 70s.
So what’s a half-speed master record? These records are copies of the original master recording cut into the blank lacquer at literally half the playback speed of the original to create a more detailed sound quality at some frequencies.
To break that down, let’s think about the process of cutting a vinyl record. The sounds produced by a vinyl record come from the record player’s stylus following grooves cut into the record with a cutting lathe. The more detail in the grooves and the more sensitive the stylus, the better and more detailed the sound quality of the record.