MOTOWN-and SONY-WERE OUT IN FRONT

One of the first digi pop recordings.






Thirty years ago, no longer "little" Stevie Wonder became among one of the handful of pop music artists to embrace the then new fangled digital recording medium.
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Despite the fact that Wonder was coming off the monster success of the analogue recorded Songs in the Key of Life, and his new digital recording, The Secret Life of Plants would be relegated to curio partly due to its soundtrack roots (sorry) and lack of set-piece songs, the double LP would just happen to be recorded on Sony's audio new game-changer, the PCM 1600 two track digital recorder.
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Never mind that Sony would quickly add an additional 22 track capability within a year, the two tracks of the PCM 1600 made an amazing sounding recording, despite having many portions of the final mix squeezed on to the two channels.
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Yet that was the real attraction of digital; theoretically-notwithstanding the claims of the digi-haters-that a producer could put as much sound on a track as needed, without any degradation
of audio quality as would be expected with multiple analogue overdubs. Eg: tape hiss and signal loss.
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So, when MOTOWN-who seemed to offer more of and in better audio quality for the new CD format-released much of their back catalogue on compact disc in the mid 80s, Wonder's Secret Life of Plants was one of the few releases that had actually been specifically recorded for the medium.

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And Plants did sound good on CD-better than most- but has lately been available only as a German import, long out of print in the US, it sadly was.

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But now, Wonder's mini-masterpiece is available via Japan, and in the pricey yet

very worthwhile SHM format, acronym for Super High Material CD.
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Won't glaze your eyes with the tech bits, but suffice to say this new version of
Plants will really grow on you-sorry, again. (Click on scan at upper left for more on early digital recording.)

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Plus, SHM is backwards compatible which is an audio geek's way of saying that the disc will play on any CD player, although it is quite possible the better your player

is, the better the music will be reproduced.
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Watch shortly for a full review of the SHM Plants CD at our sister site, http://www.boomermediareview.com/