Jealous Haters Since 1998!
Home | News | Reviews | Day In Rock | Photos | RockNewsWire | Singled Out | Tour Dates/Tix | Feeds

Classic Big Audio Dynamite Album Expanded For 25th Anniversary

04/20/2010
.
Originally released in 1985, This Is Big Audio Dynamite is a groundbreaking and highly influential album which perfectly blends New York beats, Jamaican bass lines, ear-bending cinematic samples, and British guitar rock. Before the Rap meets Rock cultural paradigm, before the meshing of musical genres became the norm - there was Big Audio Dynamite, led by ex-Clash guitarist/vocalist Mick Jones. This landmark album now includes a second disc of 12 bonus tracks comprising rare U.S. and U.K. 12-inch remixes, edits, dub versions, outtakes, and B-sides - five of them previously unreleased. In Stores Tuesday April 27th

"Born from the ashes of the Clash," is how Don Letts puts it, referring to the cosmic implosion in 1983, after seven glorious years, of the original lineup of 'the only band that really mattered.' Parting ways with the band for 'ideological differences' (as rock lore has always noted), free agent Mick Jones was free to set the stage for the arrival two years later of Big Audio Dynamite.

That arrival (October 1985) came in the form of This Is Big Audio Dynamite, a monumental and influential album of British post-punk rock revisionism 'clashing' head-on with hip-hop beatboxes (pre-Beastie Boys and Fatboy Slim and Run-DMC's hip-hop-rock fusion projects), dancefloor grooves, the Vocoder (precursor of T-Pain's Auto-tune), and eye-opening, ear-bending cinematic samples gathered up from spaghetti westerns, Nic Roeg films and more.

The 43-minute album (released on the cusp of the LP and CD eras) hit the UK and U.S. AM and FM, rock and R&B radio (and video) airwaves, club dancefloors, and mobile sound systems with a salvo of 12-inch singles – "The Bottom Line," "E=MC²," and "Medicine Show." B.A.D.'s debut was destined to take its rightful place as "the album that the Clash should have followed Combat Rock with" (as Letts writes).

Twenty-five years later (anniversary to be celebrated in 2010) the album's punch is commemorated with This Is Big Audio Dynamite – Legacy Edition. The 2-CD package presents a newly remastered version of the original 8-song album, plus a second CD of 12 bonus tracks comprising rare U.S. and UK 12-inch remixes, edits, dub versions, outtakes, and B-sides – five of them previously unreleased on CD. This latest entry in the critically acclaimed multiple-disc Legacy Edition series will be available at all physical and digital retail outlets starting April 27, 2010, through Columbia/Legacy, a division of Sony Music Entertainment.

Adding to the package is the full-color booklet containing essays written by original band members Mick Jones, Don Letts, Dan Donovan, Leo "E-Z Kill" Williams, and Greg Roberts, which mesh into a biographical portrait of the band. There are also unpublished photos and shots of memorabilia from the original album release.

The second CD, containing the 12 bonus tracks, will be especially interesting to B.A.D. aficionados as well as newcomers. The first eight tracks are alternate versions of songs following the album sequence: a 12-inch remix of "Medicine Show" (whose video, directed by Don Letts, featured former Clash members Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon, and Johnny Rotten of Sex Pistols and Public Image Limited); the previously unreleased dub version of "Sony"; a 12-inch remix of "E=MC²" (the album's most successful single, hitting #11 in the UK for a 9-week chart stay, #47 in Australia, and #33 on the U.S. Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart); and so on

The Vocoder – at first confined to electronic music practitioners such as Walter (Wendy) Carlos and Robert Moog in the 1960s, came into wide use by rockers in the '70s and '80s, from Alan Parsons and Pink Floyd and Kraftwerk, to Electric Light Orchestra and Mike Oldfield. But B.A.D. were pioneers in bringing the device to the hip-hop beatbox genre, as heard in the previously unreleased Vocoder version outtake of "BAD."

The final four bonus tracks on CD two include the previously unreleased outtake of "Electric Vandal" (an unencountered B.A.D. song); the UK 12-inch promo non-LP B-side "Albert Einstein Meets The Human Beatbox"; the U.S. 12-inch remix of "BAD"; and the 7-inch non-LP B-side of "This Is Big Audio Dynamite."

THIS IS BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE – LEGACY EDITION (Columbia/Legacy 88697 48239 2, originally issued October 1985, as Columbia 40220) Selections: 1. Medicine Show (3rd single, UK #29, U.S. Dance #42) • 2. Sony • 3. E=MC² (2nd single, UK #11, U.S. Dance #37) • 4. The Bottom Line (1st single, UK #97, U.S. Dance #33) • 5. A Party • 6. Sudden Impact • 7. Stone Thames • 8. BAD.

Bonus CD:
1. Medicine Show (12-inch Remix)
2. Sony Dub (Dub Version Previously Unreleased)
3. E=MC² (12-Inch Remix)
4. The Bottom Line (12-inch Remix, Edit Version)
5. A Party Dub Edited dub version from UK Medicine Show 12-inch)
6. Sudden Impact (12-Inch Mix Previously Unreleased)
7. Stone Thames (12-Inch Mix Previously unreleased)
8. BAD (Vocoder Version, Outtake Previously Unreleased)
9. Electric Vandal (Outtake Previously Unreleased)
10. Albert Einstein Meets The Human Beatbox (B-Side of UK E=MC² 12-inch Promo)
11. BAD (U.S. 12-Inch Remix)
12. This Is Big Audio Dynamite (7-Inch Non LP B-Side)

Share this article on Twitter

[an error occurred while processing this directive]


Click here to read today's full Day in Rock report

Preview and Purchase Big Audio Dynamite CDs

Big Audio Dynamite Tour Dates/Tickets

Big Audio Dynamite MP3 Downloads

Was it Good for you? Please Fark it!, Stumble It, Digg it or more!
Fark
Stumble Upon
Digg
Facebook

tell a friend about this article

know of a news item we should cover?

antiMUSIC News featured on RockNews.info and Yahoo News

.


...end


.
News Reports
.
Day in Rock:
Lamb Of God's Mark Morton Streams Chester Bennington Collaboration- Rush Members To Make Special Appearance- Unreleased David Bowie Tracks In New Collection- more

Day in Pop

B-Sides: Taylor Swift Reveals Her Mother Has Cancer- Rich Homie Quan Surrenders To Police Over Alleged Nightclub Assault- Justin Bieber Duets With Ariana Grande- Mumford & Sons- more

 Subscribe To Day in Rock

.
 
Reviews
.

Ladies Only: Jennie Abrahamson- Rachel Garlin- Nneka- More

Album of the Week: Led Zeppelin's When The West Was Won

Karyn Crisis' Gospel Of The Witches - Salem's Wounds

The Blues: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers- Arlen Roth, Mike Henderson Band- Slam Allen

Trauma Interview

December in Red - The Way Out

Battleaxe - Power From the Universe Reissue

SOKO Interview

The Compulsions - Dirty Fun

Rock Reads: Morbid Tales! A Tribute to Celtic Frost

Death Penalty - Death Penalty

On The Record: The Wild Beyond

RockPile: Minutian- Odin's Court- THEO

Michael Ubaldini Interview

Root 66: Cameron Mitchell- Stacy Jones- Greg Shirley


. .
.
Today's Rock News
. Lamb Of God's Mark Morton Streams Chester Bennington Collaboration

Rush Members To Make Special Appearance

Unreleased David Bowie Tracks In New Collection

Def Leppard Announce Summer Tour Dates

Avenged Sevenfold's M Shadows Guests On John Dolmayan Album

Aerosmith To Rock Steven Tyler's Grammy Awards Viewing Party

Tedeschi Trucks Band Streaming New Song 'Hard Case'

Queen Bohemian Rhapsody Biopic Nominated For Seven BAFTA Awards

Behemoth Release Ecclesia Diabolica Catholica Video

Blues Music Awards Nominees Announced


Subscribe to Day in Rock Report by Email

.
.
Today's Pop News
.
.
.
Latest B-Sides News
.

More News
.
 
anti Worthy Links
.
AudioNationRadio.comThe Screen DoorA Journal of Musical ThingsLloyd Zeffler blogDemolish MagNightwatcher's House of RockCJ ChilversDeja VoodooThe 1st Fivethecopycat.bizHard Rock Memorabilia Day in Rock @twitter

.
  .
.

Click Here to Buy T-Shirts!
Click Here to Buy T-Shirts!

 

Tell a Friend about this page - Contact Us - Privacy - antiMusic Email - Why we are antiMusic

Copyright© 1998 - 2013 Iconoclast Entertainment Group All rights reserved. antiMusic works on a free link policy for reprinting of our original articles, click here for details. Please click here for legal restrictions and terms of use applicable to this site. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the terms of use.