Original released on LP Decca Phase 4 PFS 34091
(US, 1967)
Basically, the Phase 4 Stereo banner was sometimes seen as an excuse to play with the boundaries of recorded sound by mixing weird effect with traditional orchestral sounds, allowing arrangers like John Keating and Roland Shaw to place rock stylings in the mix with traditionally fuddy-duddy big bands as a way of exploring these new possibilities. You might think that Phase 4 Stereo has something to do with the quadraphonic sound that shone briefly in the early part of the 70's, but that's not the case. It did however, have a good deal to do with the technological developments in sound recording that Decca had pioneered earlier. In this day and age, with hi-fi recording taken for granted, it's often difficult to envisage that there was a time when it was not thus. Before Decca release the first stereo recordings in 1958, everything was in glorious mono, and one speaker was all that you needed to groove on down. With stereo and the use of two channels of sound the listener could sit at the centre of the action...this was Phase 1. Phase 2 was long playing records, phase 3 was stereo, so the next new twist was phase 4. More specifically, the left and right channels of stereo were recorded without the right channel bleeding over to the left and vice versa. 
The stereo effect was much more pronounced, be that good or bad. Phase 4 may have been a marketing gimmick, but some of the recordings made with that process are absolute treasures, with or without the special features of Phase 4 multitracking. This album (one of my father's favourites, which he bought in Johannesburg) is a very good example of Phase 4 possibilities. The scene is set in Spain, Madrid, at a bullfight arena. Roger Laredo conducts his orchestra through some spanish classics, like “Malagueña”, “Andalucia” or “Ritual Fire Dance”. But the most exciting track is a traditional arrangement called “Rumba Flamenca”. I think you’ll be very amazed by this glorious sound (it was ripped directly from the original vinyl Lp) and, in the first six tracks (the Side 1 of the album), if you close your eyes you’ll be transported to the fiesta brava. Olé Toreador!
