Jack White is a gift that keeps on giving and he’s just announced the arrival of the world’s first ever “Ultra LP”.
The garage-blues extraordinaire is a busy man, last month receiving the honour of creating the ‘World’s Fastest Record’ as part of Record Store Day 2014, and now, as Consequence of Sound point out, White has revealed some incredible innovations for the super special vinyl release of his sophomore record, Lazaretto.
So what exactly makes this an “Ultra LP”? Get this: the special cut of Lazaretto includes hidden tracks beneath labels, locked grooves that play over and over, different mixes, separate intros to the same track, the ability to play the record at three speeds, shiny and matte-look finishes for sides A and B.
Oh, and spoiler alert: White has figured out how to conjure a hologram above your spinning wax.
That’s right, the Detroit native has invented the first ever record that features two floating holographic angels, notably to fit the album art’s ethereal aesthetic. How you ask? White has enlisted an artist by the name of Tristan Duke whom has etched special outlining into the grooves, meaning that every single piece of wax has been hard-crafted by Duke – crazy, right? But that’s not all!
“We’ve pulled of a lot of interesting ideas all in this one LP,” promises White in a new tell-all video from Third Man Records explaining the new Ultra LP release and detailing all of its insanely awesome features.
Leading into the next exciting feature, “any average myrmidon would pick the needle up and start here at the edge of the record on the outside and sit down and hope for the best, but not with The Ultra LP,” explains White.
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Side A begins from the centre, and plays outward. When it reaches the outmost edge, it halts, repeating a locked groove. The idea is somewhat similar to The Beatles all-time great Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club, that has a locked groove when the record meets at the most inward point possible – repeating over and over. “We’ve pulled of a lot of interesting ideas all in this one LP.”
Where you place the needle proves paramount with The Ultra LP as it features the first ever “double groove intro”. The beginning of the record will either play an acoustic or electric introduction that eventually come together within the track itself – it’s just the luck of your needle-drop precision that will conclude which sound you hear. How much are you dying to fiddle with this creation already?
Borrowing a slightly different concept – this time from White’s band The Dead Weather – The Lazaretto Ultra LP contains hidden tracks underneath the inner label (with side A to be played at 78rpm and side B at 45rpm) meaning it can be played at three different speeds, another first to be inked into the history books.
This delicious wax further differentiates itself from other standard Lazaretto editions with alternate mixes of the tracks and a rearranged running order.
Finally, for those that love the look of vinyl, the visual of each side of the record differs, with side A nice and shiny and side B a classic matte black finish.
As great as all these add-ons may sound, some of the technicalities may sound a little intimidating, but take it from the man himself, “we should point out though that you don’t need a slide rule and a compass to enjoy this record at all. As complicated as we’re making it sound, there’s all these hidden beautiful things in there but you can just put this record on normally and play it at 33/3.”
The wait is not long fans – Jack White’s Ultra LP Lazaretto is out June 10th on Third Man Records. Get another dose of the title track below.
