Universal Togetherness Band – Universal Togetherness Band (2015)

Universal Togetherness Band – Universal Togetherness Band
Vinyl rip in 24 bit 192 khz | Art at  300 dpi
24-bit 192 khz – 1.57 GB | 24 bit 96 khz – 838 MB | 281 MB 16-bit 44.1 khz
Numero Groupo NUM57 | Released 2015 | Funk – Soul – Jazz-Funk

Dr. Vibes’ Twelve Days of Christmas – Day 4:  Numero Group are the reigning kings of releasing “lost” music. I have joked in the past, among select company of course, that on occasion some of that music probably could have remained lost. But it is clearly a labor of love for them, and the fine attention to detail in the research, liner notes, rare photos, and decent audio restoration and mastering more than compensates for the occasional lackluster release (and, of course, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure etc.) But whereas a great deal of Numero’s lost music is usually comprised  7″ singles by singers or groups who may have had a local or regional fan base, released by indie labels in numbers small enough to be destined for 21st-century audio archeologists, The Universal Togetherness Band is another story – an entire album of material, recorded in pristine quality as a student project through the audio engineering program at Columbia College in Chicago (a small arts college with a strong practical, ‘hands-on’ component, for kids who can’t afford the elite Art Institute down the street..).  The end result was top-notch jazz-funk-disco-soul that would have fit nicely with any of the groups on the De-Lite Records roster or a similar outfit. 

A1 Ain’t Gonna Cry 5:27
A2 Real Thrill 4:50
A3 Try Try Try 5:14
A4 My Sentiment 4:22
B1 Once In A Lifetime 5:03
B2 Taken By Love 6:37
B3 Call For Love 5:14
B4 I Want You 3:37

Compiled By, Research, Liner Notes – Jon Kirby
Reissue Producer – Jon Kirby, Ken Shipley, Rob Sevier
Written-By – Andre Gibson (tracks: A1-B4), Paul Hanover (tracks: A1)

Barcode: 825764105712
Matrix / Runout (Side A Etched Runout): NUM-057-A WG/NRP 23118.1(2)…
Matrix / Runout (Side B Etched Runout): NUM-057-B WG/NRP 23118.2(2)…

“Between 1979 and 1982, The Universal Togetherness Band tracked unearthly portions of their sprawling songbook for bewildered students in Columbia College’s audio engineering program. Storming the gates of Chicago’s premier recording studios, the erudite party band explored permutations of soul, jazz-fusion, new wave, and disco with little regard for studio rates or the availability of magnetic tape.

Universal Togetherness Band captures the brightest, never-before-heard moments from this visionary group’s 5-semester recording bender. The attractive gatefold LP edition boasts magnificent reproductions of never-before-seen images from the archives of Chicago photographer Steven E. Gross. The CD version features several candid snapshots from the group’s personal collections. Meticulously mixed from the original multi-track sessions by Sean Marquand (Phenomenal Handclap Band), Universal Togetherness Band is presented in peak fidelity. “

LINEAGE: Numberou Group NUM057; Pro-Ject RM-5SE with Audio Tecnica AT440-MLa cartridge; Speedbox power supply; Creek Audio OBH-15; Audioquest King Cobra cables; M-Audio Audiophile 192 Soundcard ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 192khz; clicks and pops removed manually with Adobe Audition 3.0; dithered and resampled using iZotope RX Advanced. Converted to FLAC in either Trader’s Little Helper or dBPoweramp. Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename.

Pressed on high-quality vinyl, this is the original gatefold pressing. I did not scan the gatefold artwork because I didn’t want to damage my copy, but I included the PDF that came with the B&W Society of Sound digital release, with permission from a friend who shared that copy elsewhere.

password: vibes

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