Big Audio Dynamite This Is Big Audio Dynamite 180g LP

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Out of Print! Only a few copies available!

180g Dead Quiet Vinyl Pressed at RTI!
Mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound!
100% Analog Mastering from Real Analog Tapes!

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In 1985 Joe Strummer failed at stripping The Clash down and taking it back in time with Cut the Crap while former band mate Mick Jones leaped forward with the visionary, genre-crossing Big Audio Dynamite. BAD’s debut This is Big Audio Dynamite is a multi-layered and sample-driven whirlwind of musical influences, including house and hip-hop, rap and reggae, electro-pop and more, with movie dialog and sound effects thrown in just for fun!

While the music has to be called out as experimental for its day, Jones’ gift for rhythm, melody and catchy hooks makes it an eminently listenable and utterly cool affair that on each listen will have you humming and singing to yourself for days.

The influence this album and band would have on rock and rap in the following decade can’t be understated. It’s impossible to listen to 80s and 90s classics like The Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique or Beck’s Odelay without hearing echoes of the beats and samples from This Is Big Audio Dynamite all the way back in 1985.

Mastering Notes:
For This is Big Audio Dynamite our friends at Sony scoured the US and UK vaults and secured the best analog tape currently available, a beautiful 1/4” 15-ips “cutting copy” from 1985. This tape was used for the expanded Sony Legacy 2010 CD reissue, and as it's either the only remaining or the best usable analog tape it would be tempting to call it the "master tape," as it would be advantageous to IR to market it as "from the master tapes." However, as an avid record collector I always want to know exactly what the source is for every LP I buy and am continually frustrated that so many brands are so coy about this (or outright misleading). The tape box pictured here has a box checked "copy" and I'm telling it like it is. Most important, these tapes sound great, and we're delviering the definitive version of this great LP! Ryan K. Smith's cut for Intervention has much greater bass punch, a much more expansive soundstage and greater inner detail that reveals all the nuances in this utterly unique and densely-layered production. The dynamics are greatly improved as well adding immensely to the fun and drama of the movie samples and sound effects.

(Re)Discover Series:
You know those songs that come up on the radio when you’re driving and you crank up the volume to 11 and sing your lungs out? That’s the spirit of what Intervention’s (Re)Discover Series is all about! Taking these FM classics and presenting them in “like you’ve never heard it before” sound quality so you can get that same blast of energy and excitement on your hi-fi at home. The hallmark of this series will be 100% analog mastering from real analog tapes. Combining superior master sources with the truly full-range mastering chain at Cohearent Audio and RTI’s dead quiet vinyl pressing means that you’ll hear these FM staples with power, majesty and musical detail like it’s the first time. (Re)Discover these sonic treasures with us!

"I compared the new pressing with the 1990 CD edition. The CD, less aggressively bright than the earliest pop CDs tended to be, is quite listenable overall, but remarkably flat compared to the new vinyl -- the music seems to stop at the speakers. Smith has revealed the width and depth of the original music, which brings the many elements of the recording more out in the open....Throughout this remastering, percussion pops from the speakers with more force, bass reaches out to thump harder, keyboards have more texture and life, and the music widens and deepens to become more envelopingly three-dimensional." - Joseph Taylor, SoundStage! Access

"First things first, when you listen to This Is Big Audio "Dynamite, you cannot mistake the era in which it was created. The electronic sound and vocal effects of the album just epitomize the 1980s. But there is more going on here as the record also looks toward the future with its use of sampling and hip-hop. While the sampling is mostly spoken lines from movies, most prominent in "Medicine Show," it does hint at a practice that is ubiquitous in today's music. The rap/hip-hop influences, especially on the closing track, "Bad," seem prescient for a time when the genre was just beginning to meld with rock and pop. The album is also not punk, either. The instrumentation and sampling are far too complex for the usual rawness and quick hitting of the punk movement. Some of the attitude strains from Jones' rebellious earlier days shine though however, like in the anti-corporate "Sony" or allusions to AIDS in "Stone Thames."...As This Is Big Audio Dynamite has been reissued before, including a 2-disc Legacy Edition from Sony's Legacy Recordings in 2010, the focus on this new reissue is on the sound quality and packaging. The album has been remastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound from a 1/4" 15-ips "cutting copy" from 1985. This is the same tape from which the Legacy Edition was sourced, and Intervention truthfully discloses in the mastering information on their website that this is not the "master" tape, as it is a copy. However, it is the only remaining or best available analog tape, and one listen to this quiet, clean, and pristine vinyl reissue will make it clear that it sounds wonderful." - Randy Fairman, The Second Disc



Features:
• 100% Analog Mastering From Real Analog Tapes
• Mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound
• Dead Quiet 180g Vinyl
• Pressed at RTI
• Exquisitely Restored Cover Art printed by Stoughton
• Original-release gatefold jacket

Selections:
Side 1:
1. Medicine Show
2. Sony
3. E=MC²
4. The Bottom Line
Side 2:
5. A Party
6. Sudden Impact!
7. Stone Thames
8. Bad