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Jack White's Lazaretto 'Ultra LP' is a marvel of vinyl engineering

Setting a Guinness World Record after tracking and releasing a 7-inch vinyl in under four hours last month wasn't enough. Now, Jack White and Third Man Records have revealed plans for the Lazaretto Ultra LP ahead of its June 10th release. We'll provide the full list of details after the break, but here's a quick rundown of the highlights. First, there are two vinyl-only hidden tracks that are tucked underneath the labels on each side. What's more, one of those tracks plays at 78 RPM and the other at 45 RPM, making this 180-gram vinyl release a three-speed record. If you're familiar with White's project The Dead Weather, you know he's embraced the under label groove before.

Side A also plays from the inside out and both sides have a locked groove that repeats -- both of which have been seen on LPs before (The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's, for example). Dual-groove tech plays either an electric or acoustic intro for the song "Just One Drink" based on where the needle is dropped, but both meet up once the song gets going. In the dead wax area on one side, there's a "first of its kind" hand-etched floating hologram of an angel. And finally, as you might expect, there's no compression of the audio here. If you're in need of further explanation, there's a video walk-through just down below.

Ultra LP features:

  • 180 gram vinyl

  • 2 vinyl-only hidden tracks hidden beneath the center labels

  • 1 hidden track plays at 78 RPM, one plays at 45 RPM, making this a 3-speed record

  • Side A plays from the inside out

  • Dual-groove technology: plays an electric or acoustic intro for "Just One Drink" depending on where needle is dropped. The grooves meet for the body of the song.

  • Matte finish on Side B, giving the appearance of an un-played 78 RPM record

  • Both sides end with locked grooves

  • Vinyl pressed in seldom-used flat-edged format

  • Dead wax area on Side A contains a hand-etched hologram by Tristan Duke of Infinity Light Science, the first of its kind on a vinyl record

  • Absolutely zero compression used during recording, mixing and mastering

  • Different running order from the CD/digital version

  • LP utilizes some mixes different from those used on CD and digital version