Survival

Containing what is considered Marley's most defiant and politically charged statement to date, Survival (1979) concerns itself with the expressed solidarity of not only Africa, but of humanity at large. The album was controversial right down to the jacket, which contains a crude schematic of the stowage compartment of a typical transatlantic slave ship.

Abbey Road's world-renowned engineers have been cutting grooves into discs since the studios first opened their doors in 1931. These records were pressed from master cuts using a precision technique known as half-speed mastering. The procedure requires the source master and the cutting lathe to run at half speed on a specially adapted Neumann VMS-80 lathe. This rare and specialised technique transforms difficult to cut highend frequencies into relatively easy to cut mid-range frequencies. The result is a cut with excellent high frequency response and very solid and stable stereo images. In short, half-speed mastering produces a master of the highest quality that enables the pressing plant to produce a superlative record. - Miles Showell, Mastering Engineer, Abbey Road Studios