Isaac Hayes’s Stax catalog has been remastered from the original analog tapes for hi-res format HDTracks and iTunes. Twelve of Hayes’ Stax albums including Black Moses, Shaft and Hot Buttered Soul.
Award-winning engineer Dave Cooley was responsible for the project and mentioned the differences in the new remastered versions. “Every effort was undertaken to retain both the original production team’s intent and the most natural and truthful spatial imaging of Isaac’s voice and instrumentation. “For the first time, you can plainly hear details as small as the subtle coloration variations between the original studio setups and tape formulations from album to album.  There’s renewed resolution around instruments. But you can also dive into the zoned-out atmospherics, and listen comfortably for hours as an entire body of work. There was an immense pressure to get it right.  Having grown up transcribing the very piano licks and grooves that were sampled by such hip-hop luminaries as Public Enemy and others, I was well acquainted with Isaac’s legacy as a revolutionary enigma spanning multiple generations.  Remastering the catalog was a call to re-ignite that with even more transparency and a deeper pulse for the next group of listeners.”
The next year will bring some 180-gram vinyl reissues and a retrospective box set from Hayes. The newly remastered albums can be purchased at isaachayes.com, Itunes.com/isaachayes and HDTracks.com