Big Audio Dynamite
Big Audio Dynamite, ‘Megatop Phoenix’, 1989. Mick Jones was in the Clash, which confers Godlike status, obvs. BAD was his next venture. He was always into new things and if the Clash hadn’t split up, they might have sounded like this. Mick had gone to Ibiza and started raving and generally enjoying himself. This album is full of samples, (when only rappers were sampling back then), mainly from old British movies, linking songs and woven into them. It’s dance music inflected with rock drums and guitar, the songs mainly about London.
‘Rewind’ has Don Letts doing reggae toasting over a danceable mess. ‘Union Jack’ is a great riff, stomping drums, thick bass, samples, and dirty guitar breaks. Choon! ‘Contact’ is funky percussion and keys, with a fiddle thrown in, on a poppy tune. ‘Dragon Town’ an ode to London’s China Town with dance beats and guitar. ‘Baby, Don’t Apologize’ dubby House anthem. ‘Around A Girl in 80 Ways’ bubbly feelgood pop love song. Yes, really. ‘James Brown’ with the great man sampled, House keyboards, percussion. ‘Everybody Needs a Holiday’ reggae dub bass and rhythm and keyboards on a pretty melody. ‘Mick’s a Hippie Burning’ sampled cut-up vocals and electronica. Trippy. ‘House Arrest’ a House tune with phat bass, stabs, big beat. ‘The Green Lady’ big guitar, squitty keys, throbbing bass, electronic drums. ‘London Bridge’ Housey pop. ‘Stalag 123’ woozy and chilled beats.
So, it’s not the Clash, production wise it sounds like 1989, the cover's a mess (with Chaos Theory fractals, very ‘du jour’ at the time, dated now), but there’s enough fun in the grooves to merit a listen.
Big Audio Dynamite
Big Audio Dynamite, ‘Megatop Phoenix’, 1989. Mick Jones was in the Clash, which confers Godlike status, obvs. BAD was his next venture. He was always into new things and if the Clash hadn’t split up, they might have sounded like this. Mick had gone to Ibiza and started raving and generally enjoying himself. This album is full of samples, (when only rappers were sampling back then), mainly from old British movies, linking songs and woven into them. It’s dance music inflected with rock drums and guitar, the songs mainly about London.
‘Rewind’ has Don Letts doing reggae toasting over a danceable mess. ‘Union Jack’ is a great riff, stomping drums, thick bass, samples, and dirty guitar breaks. Choon! ‘Contact’ is funky percussion and keys, with a fiddle thrown in, on a poppy tune. ‘Dragon Town’ an ode to London’s China Town with dance beats and guitar. ‘Baby, Don’t Apologize’ dubby House anthem. ‘Around A Girl in 80 Ways’ bubbly feelgood pop love song. Yes, really. ‘James Brown’ with the great man sampled, House keyboards, percussion. ‘Everybody Needs a Holiday’ reggae dub bass and rhythm and keyboards on a pretty melody. ‘Mick’s a Hippie Burning’ sampled cut-up vocals and electronica. Trippy. ‘House Arrest’ a House tune with phat bass, stabs, big beat. ‘The Green Lady’ big guitar, squitty keys, throbbing bass, electronic drums. ‘London Bridge’ Housey pop. ‘Stalag 123’ woozy and chilled beats.
So, it’s not the Clash, production wise it sounds like 1989, the cover's a mess (with Chaos Theory fractals, very ‘du jour’ at the time, dated now), but there’s enough fun in the grooves to merit a listen.