"Upchurch" by PHIL UPCHURCH (August 2014 Japan-Only CD Reissue on Universal/Cadet as part of the 'Chess Best Collection' Series) - A Review by Mark Barry...

...Badly Mastered - Dubbed From Vinyl Most Likely...

I'm a huge Charles Stepney fan - the arranger, producer, songwriter and driving force behind the Cadet Records label - Chess's offshoot for Soul and more Avant Garde material.

I own the Japanese SHM-CD of Upchurch's meisterwerk "Darkness, Darkness" - a double-album from 1971 Remastered onto one CD. That disc is virtually Audiophile in its sound quality – a blast - unfortunately - not so here.

"Upchurch" is the album that preceded "Darkness, Darkness" - released Stateside mid 1969 on Cadet Records LPS-826 as a 10-Track LP in Stereo.

1. Black Gold [Side 1]

2. America

3. As You Said

4. You Wouldn't, You Couldn't Be True

5. Cross Town Traffic

6. Adam And Charlene [Side 2]

7. Spinning Wheel

8. Voodoo Chile

9. More And More

10. Midnight Chile

Uncharacteristically the normally solid 'Chess Best Collection' CD Reissue Series out of Japan is poorly represented here on this 2014 reissue. It's clear the album has been mastered from a clean record but you can still here the distorted edges of the notes - never more so than on the awful beginning of the Hendrix cover "Voodoo Chile" with scratches aplenty. And as other buyers have pointed out - someone has edited out the beginning of the epic "Black Gold" Side 1 opener - reducing the Charles Stepney penned track from 4:31 minutes on LP to 4:16 minutes on CD. And given that Stepney layered 36 players onto the track (strings and singers) - being a vinyl dub - it feels terribly cluttered and overly harsh too audio-wise. To the CD release itself...

Japan-only released 27 August 2014 on Universal/Cadet UICY-76556 (Barcode 4988005840219) - "Upchurch" by PHIL UPCHURCH is also budget priced (part of the Chess Best Collection series) so can be bought for about twelve quid including P&P in the right places (35:05 minutes). The gatefold slip of paper that acts as an inlay repro's the front and rear artwork of the original 1969 Cadet Records sleeve - but the gatefold Japanese inlay inside that is in Japanese-only and tells you bugger all – not even mastering credits. The musicians are listed and for me one of the big draws here is DONNY HATHAWAY on Piano and the James Mack Singers giving it those "Black Gold" backing vocals.

So the disc sounds good - very good in places - his own "You Wouldn't, You Couldn't Be True" and Upchurch's cool Flute and Guitar take on Blood, Sweat & Tears "Spinning Wheel" - a sexy Rock groove written by the band's vocalist David Clayton Thomas that was adapted by many Soul Artists who heard the potential in the song. But his cover of Hendrix's "Cross Town Traffic" sounds terrible - distorted and out of joint. "As You Said" (a Cream cover from "Wheels Of Fire" penned by Jack Bruce and Pete Brown) doesn't fare much better but Don Juan Mancha's "More And More" is excellent. 

For the price it's not a bad buy and there's no other CD on the market even in 2018. But we can only hope that someone like Hip-O Select or Cherry Red has a go at the Stepney output - Box Set and Individual Releases? For those who must have it - I'd advise a listen first if possible...