Donald Fagen - "The Nightfly" - MFSL One Step Ultradisc #UD1S 2-003 - New / Sealed - #1461 out of 6000 total

Mobile Fidelity One-Step Process 45 RPM pressing of Donald Fagen's audiophile favorite, "The Nightfly".
#1461 of 6000 strictly limited edition
These have sold out and will not be repressed.
SEALED / NEW

Mastered from the Original Master Tapes with Mobile Fidelity's One-Step Process: The Nightfly UD1S 45RPM Box Set Is the Ultimate Analog Version of Donald Fagen's 1982 Landmark Debut

Lavish Packaging Includes Opulent Box and Special Foil-Stamped Jackets: Deluxe Audiophile Pressing Strictly Limited to 6000 Numbered Copies (Limit Two Per Customer)

Cinema for the Ears: The Nightfly Remains One of the Best-Sounding Albums Ever Made with Reference Production, Standout Playing, and Jazz-Like Arrangements That Embody Timeless Cool

Donald Fagen's largely autobiographical The Nightfly remains one of the best-sounding albums ever made. Revered by audiophiles, the Steely Dan co-founder's 1982 set immediately became a demonstration disc at audio salons and hi-fi shows the world over. It also quickly emerged as an irreplaceable monitor-evaluating tool for recording-studio engineers and front-of-the-house testing device for concert-venue soundboard engineers who continue to use it today. Painstakingly recorded over eight months by producer Gary Katz and engineers Roger Nichols and Elliot Scheiner, The Nightfly endures as a rare trifecta of superlative performance, consummate songwriting, and crisp, benchmark production. Mobile Fidelity is honored to give this seminal effort unsurpassed treatment befitting the most serious music connoisseurs.

Fagen's solo debut reaches three-dimensional sonic and emotional heights never before attained on Mobile Fidelity's opulent UD1S (UltraDisc One-Step) box set. Strictly limited to 6,000 numbered copies, this ultra-hi-fi collector's edition literally and figuratively brings you closer to music that picks up where Steely Dan's Gaucho leaves off. You'll enjoy deep-black backgrounds, boundless soundstaging, pointillist details, staggering dynamics, and arguably, the most lifelike tonalities and nuances ever committed to vinyl. Experienced via UD1S, The Nightfly places Fagen and his session pros in your listening room. Every note, breath, and movement is reproduced with exquisite accuracy, wowing clarity, and impeccable balance. Consider this edition your new go-to reference.

The lavish packaging and beautiful presentation of Mobile Fidelity's The Nightfly pressing befit its extremely select status. Housed in a deluxe box, this UD1S version contains special foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording. No expense has been spared. Aurally and visually, this reissue of The Nightfly is a curatorial artifact meant to be preserved, poured over, touched, and examined. It is made for discerning listeners that prize sound quality and creativity, and who desire to fully immerse themselves in the art – and everything involved with the album, from the images to the textures and liner notes.

Nominated for seven Grammy Awards, The Nightfly "represent[s] certain fantasies that might have been entertained by a young man growing up in the remote suburbs of a northeastern city during the late fifties and early sixties, i.e., one of my general height, weight, and build," pens Fagen in the liner notes, revealing the work's thematic thrust and wistful, nostalgic appeal. At their core, songs look at the world via an optimistic, mindfully innocent lens and through the eyes of an adolescent holed up in his bedroom with his ear to a radio whose exciting transmissions inspire thoughts of futuristic cities, late-night deejays, otherworldly hopes, and Cold War romances. Cinema for the ears, The Nightfly comes on like a film transferred to wax – its stories filled with relatable vulnerability, ambition, and warmth.

It is also timelessly cool, with everything from the iconic album cover – complete with Fagen in the role of a cigarette-smoking disk jockey spinning a Sonny Rollins album on an RCA turntable at 4:09 in the morning – to the flawless playing honoring the laid-back, hip, stylish jazz pedigree of the arrangements. Indeed, The Nightfly's fame owes as much to the stunning contributions by stellar musicians – saxophonist Michael Brecker, trumpeter Randy Brecker, guitarist Larry Carlton, drummer Steve Jordan, bassist Marcus Miller, drummer Jeff Porcaro, and "Harmonica Frank" Floyd included – as it does the particulars behind its creation, which involved cutting-edge technology, novel microphone techniques, and pioneering recording methods that gave Fagen exactly what he demanded. His insistence on dialing in exacting drum sounds is by itself the stuff of legend.

The results of the meticulous sessions transcend eras and generations – part of its very design. Virtually every track connects with classic 50s and 60s styles. "Green Flower Street" doubles as an homage to the jazz standard "On Green Dolphin Street." The title track draws imagery from blues pioneer Charley Patton. "Ruby Baby" references soul greats the Drifters. "Maxine" nods to harmonies perfected by big-band vocal quartets like the Four Freshmen. "The Goodbye Look" acknowledges the bossa-nova craze of Fagen's youth. In all respects, The Nightfly rules the airwaves.

More About Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step and Why It Is Superior
Instead of utilizing the industry-standard three-step lacquer process, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's new UltraDisc One-Step (UD1S) uses only one step, bypassing two processes of generational loss. While three-step processing is designed for optimum yield and efficiency, UD1S is created for the ultimate in sound quality. Just as Mobile Fidelity pioneered the UHQR (Ultra High-Quality Record) with JVC in the 1980s, UD1S again represents another state-of-the-art advance in the record-manufacturing process. MFSL engineers begin with the original master tapes and meticulously cut a set of lacquers. These lacquers are used to create a very fragile, pristine UD1S stamper called a "convert." Delicate "converts" are then formed into the actual record stampers, producing a final product that literally and figuratively brings you closer to the music. By skipping the additional steps of pulling another positive and an additional negative, as done in the three-step process used in standard pressings, UD1S produces a final LP with the lowest noise floor possible today. The removal of the additional two steps of generational loss in the plating process reveals tremendous amounts of extra musical detail and dynamics, which are otherwise lost due to the standard copying process. The exclusive nature of these very limited pressings guarantees that every UD1S pressing serves as an immaculate replica of the lacquer sourced directly from the original master tape. Every conceivable aspect of vinyl production is optimized to produce the most perfect record album available today.

Note: I will ship this USPS Media Mail Insured, and I will pay the difference in price. Thanks!