Santana – Abraxas – 180g 33RPM Mofi SuperVinyl LP

Abraxas remains the consummate Latin rock album. The confident sound of Santana stretching out and carving out new musical territory, the band’s 1970 effort pulses with psychedelic accents and Afro-Latin grooves. Ranked on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in its National Recording Registry, Abraxas immediately captured the public’s ear, spending six weeks at the No. 1 spot and sending the band’s cosmic cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Black Magic Woman” into the Top 5. More than five million copies and countless global accolades later, Abraxas is legend.

Sourced from the original analog tapes, housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, and improving upon the label’s critically acclaimed out-of-print 180g LP pressing, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition 180g SuperVinyl LP teems with information, clarity, textures, and colors. The result: Spacious, airy, and you-are-there sonics that further benefit from the characteristics of MoFi SuperVinyl: an ultra-low noise floor, superior groove definition, and dead-quiet surfaces.

Experience Abraxas the way it is meant to be heard, with the instruments and musicians placed in the proper channels. This collectible version captures the full tonal range of Santana’s guitar and nuances of his distinctive touch. Passages and notes are brought to the forefront and properly scaled, enhancing your emotional connection to this iconic record.

Filled with celebratory vibes, bluesy jams, mellow vocals, and hip-shaking grooves, Abraxas picks up on the momentum of Santana’s self-titled 1969 debut. Drifting into more versatile territory, Santana reimagines what’s possible in melding various disciplines and styles. Mysticism and spirituality abound amid performances featuring a thrilling assembly of purring organs, conga beats, and fluid bass lines. And that says nothing of the bandleader’s extraordinary guitar playing.

Wild, free, and loose, the group conjures the feeling of mountains and rivers on the opening instrumental “Singing Winds, Crying Beasts,” leads a salsa parade on a definitive version of Tito Puente’s “Oye Como Va,” and explores its sensual side on “Samba Pa Ti,” a track indicative of the album’s Latin vibes and percussion. Sonically, Abraxas takes advantage of then-advanced studio techniques such as cross-fading and state-of-the-art mixing. As The Mojo Collection explains: “Dissatisfied with the sound of their debut, the group brought in as a co-producer veteran jazz engineer Fred Catero, whose skills proved invaluable in balancing the new range of musical flavors Santana [was] bringing into its sound: the result was a giant step on from [the band’s] debut.”

Like the group’s debut, Abraxas long laid claim to one of the biggest production gaffes in music history. Until Mobile Fidelity corrected the error with its 2008 LP and gold CD reissues, Abraxas had never been heard correctly. For nearly four decades, copies were produced with the left and right channels reversed. So, in addition to showcasing reach-out-and-touch it sound, this SuperVinyl edition gets all the specifications right.