JEFF BECK GROUP/TRUTH SCX 6293 (-68) UK STEREO

A truly classic LP. One of the first where white blues started to emerge into hard rock and to me musical history on the same level as "Sgt. Pepper" , "Dark Side Of The Moon", "Exile On Main St." or any of the Zeppelins. In retrospective a kind of supergroup where Beck himself is surronded by Ron Wood (Faces, Rolling Stones) on bass, Mick Waller (Georgie Fame, Steampacket, besides being a renowned session drummer), the omnipresent Nicky Hopkins playing keyboards and a surprisingly hard-core Rod Stewart on vocals...on this LP further supplemented by Keith Moon, Madeline Bell and Jimmy Page. And in addition to all skill and fame involved it must also be counted as one of the best blues-rock guitar albums of all times. Point made. For more - check post on the corresponding mono. Found this stereo a while ago and picked it as part of my ongoing two-fold investigation - to examine differences between the formats, but also to reaquaint with some of those two-channel versions I discarded long time ago in favor of the monos and see if I missed something. A more thorough look into the deviations will come later, this a just about the stereo as conveyed by an early UK press (-1/-1 matrixes and 1O/1H mother/stampers). As I remember from listening back then - almost fifty years ago - the mono came through a lot bigger and rawer and hit me harder, which was the reason it became my first choice. Therefore it's a surprise hearing this stereo now and realizing it's almost as loud, hard and raw as the mono. Stereo mix is really good for a four-channel recording - sometimes slightly panned, but mostly with a healthy overlapping. While some of the guitars are less prominent in comparison to the mono, others come on stronger - so that's an even race. I'm not all in with the further added reverb on some of the tracks here, while the mono appears drier and more natural, but guess that was made to get a more coherent picture and it kind of works. It sounds so ok to me now I'm starting to wonder if I may have had a later stereo press back then, or one pressed in some other country, because like this it's quite enjoyable. Even if I still prefer the mono this stereo has enough to make it work on its own. Premiere UK had label as shown here, thick vinyl and laminated flip-back cover with EMI ad inner. (JÄBÄ*) (CPYC*)