← All Albums
Brainfeeder · 2015

The Epic

Kamasi Washington

Recorded: December 2011   Original cat#: BF050
Kamasi Washington — The Epic album cover

The Epic was recorded across a month of sessions in December 2011 at Kingsize Soundlabs in Echo Park, Los Angeles. Kamasi Washington plays tenor saxophone and leads a ten-piece core band, a 32-piece string orchestra and a 20-person choir conducted by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. Washington produced, with Tony Austin and Thundercat co-producing. Brainfeeder released it on CD in May 2015 and on vinyl in October 2015 as BF050.

The collector question here is not which reissue best serves an old tape, but a format problem that applies to every copy. The vinyl carries 172 minutes of music across six sides, close to 30 minutes a side. Cutting engineers generally treat 15 to 22 minutes a side as the limit for full dynamic range.

Best early pressing for audiophiles: No meaningfully different early option exists.

Best modern pressing for audiophiles: All vinyl pressings share the same half-speed master, so no reissue fixes the side-length problem.

Best-value modern: The vinyl box set at whatever price it turns up, since the limitations apply equally to every copy.

Recording history and tape provenance

Washington's core band, later known as the West Coast Get Down, had played together since their teens. They met at Locke High School's after-school jazz program in Los Angeles. In December 2011 the collective pooled money to rent Kingsize Soundlabs for a month.

They recorded around 190 songs in 30 days. That material later surfaced across several members' solo albums, including Miles Mosley's Uprising, Ronald Bruner Jr.'s Triumph and Cameron Graves's Planetary Prince.

Washington shelved his own share for several years. Session work raised his profile in the meantime, most visibly his string and horn arrangements for Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly. Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label released The Epic in 2015.

The album runs across three named volumes, The Plan, The Glorious Tale and The Historic Repetition. It holds 17 mostly original compositions, plus "Cherokee," Debussy's "Clair de Lune" and Terence Blanchard's "Malcolm's Theme." The last is set to a recording of Ossie Davis's eulogy for Malcolm X.

The personnel is large even by big-band standards. Miles Mosley and Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner both play bass, and Ronald Bruner Jr. and Tony Austin both play drums. Ryan Porter plays trombone, Igmar Thomas trumpet, Cameron Graves and Brandon Coleman keys, Leon Mobley percussion, with vocals from Patrice Quinn and Dwight Trible.

Stephen Marcussen mastered the CD and digital editions at Marcussen Mastering. The vinyl went through an entirely separate chain, which is where the format-specific limitations come from.

The vinyl format problem

Every known vinyl pressing, from the original 2015 run through repress batches in 2020 and 2021, shares one mastering. It is a half-speed cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy Mastering, pressed at MPO.

The 2021 repress shows sides E and F, and reportedly some A and B copies, recut by Lex van Coeverden. That looks like lacquer replacement rather than a new approach, and the sound does not meaningfully differ between pressing years.

Six sides carrying 172 minutes means each side runs close to 30 minutes. Long sides narrow the groove and compress dynamic range. Reviewers on the Discogs release describe the result as dull and muffled against the digital, over-compressed and cut at very low level. One commenter there argues it should have been spread across five LPs.

Reception is not uniformly negative. Several owners report a clean, decent-sounding pressing, particularly after cleaning. The complaints are broad and consistent enough across pressing years to read as a property of the release rather than bad luck with a copy.

The practical guidance follows from that. The vinyl is worth buying for the packaging and the object. Several owners on the same page recommend the digital or CD master for critical listening.

The package is a rigid board slipcase holding three individually artworked sleeves with 3mm spines. Two 12" poster inserts carry art by KC Woolf Haxton and calligraphy by Kenturah Davis.

Buyer's guide by budget

$$$: The vinyl box set, in any pressing year. Price and condition are the only variables.

Pressing tier summary

Tier ⇅ Pressing Cat# Year ⇅ Format Source / Mastering Notes Market ⇅
B Brainfeeder vinyl box set, all pressing years BF050 2015–2021 Stereo, 33⅓, 3×180g Half-speed cut by Matt Colton, Alchemy Mastering. Pressed at MPO Same master across all years. About 30 minutes a side. Rigid slipcase, two poster inserts
114 for sale · from $25
$50VG+
$66NM
$73M
– Brainfeeder CD and digital BFCD050 2015 Stereo Stephen Marcussen, Marcussen Mastering Not rated, not a vinyl pressing. Preferred to the vinyl for critical listening by several owners –

References

Related guides: Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Recordings · Tales from the Hudson · Black Codes (From the Underground)

Know something we don't? Spotted an error or have a pressing to add?

Edit this page on GitHub