pre order due 22/9/23
• Classic 1984 XTC album on CD/Blu-ray newly mixed (2023) by Steven Wilson in
Stereo, 5.1 Surround & (for the first time with an XTC album), Dolby Atmos Spatial
Audio mixes as part of The Surround Sound Series.
• CD features the complete album newly mixed in stereo + three additional tracks.
• Blu-Ray includes the newly mixed material as featured on CD in Hi-Res Stereo, 5.1
Surround and Dolby Atmos + 2023 stereo out-takes & instrumental mixes in Hi-Res stereo.
• Blu-Ray also includes the original album + additional tracks in Hi-Res stereo
• The complete album & more also appear in demo form (16/48 stereo reflecting the
source material).
• Packaged in a 2-disc digipack sleeve with 16-page booklet in a cardboard slip case
CD: 2023 MIX & ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
BD: 2023 MIX AND ADDITIONAL TRACKS IN DOLBY ATMOS AND DTS-HD MA SURROUND (5.1).
2023 STEREO OUT-TAKES AND INSTRUMENTAL MIXES. 24/96 LPCM STEREO.
ORIGINAL STEREO MIX AND ADDITIONAL TRACKS IN 24/96 LPCM STEREO / ALBUM AND ADDITIONAL TRACKS IN DEMO FORM. 16/48 LPCM STEREO
CD (2023 MIXES)
1. Wake Up
2. All You Pretty Girls
3. Shake You Donkey Up
4. Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her
5. This World Over
6. The Everyday Story Of Smalltown
7. I Bought Myself A Liarbird
8. Reign Of Blows
9. You’re The Wish You Are I Had
10. I Remember The Sun
11. Train Running Low On Soul Coal
ADDITIONAL TRACKS
12. Red Brick Dream
13. Washaway
14. Blue Overall
BLU-RAY
• Album and additional tracks of 2023 Mix in Dolby Atmos,
Hi-Res Stereo and DTS-HD MA Surround Sound & instrumental
mixes in Hi-Res Stereo all mixed by Steven WIlson
• Plus album and additional tracks of original mix in Hi-Res stereo,
with additional out-takes.
ADDITIONAL OUT-TAKES:
15. Broomstick Rhythm (guide vocal)
16. The Troubles (Big Express Version – Backing Track)
• Album and additional tracks in demo form in 16/48 Hi-Res stereo with
additional demos of songs written for The Big Express
ADDITIONAL DEMOS:
15. Now we all Dead (It Doesn't Matter)
16. Work
17. Gangway, Electric Guitar is Coming Through
18. Broomstick Rhythm
19. Shiny Cage
20. A Patriotic Romance
“The Big Express is the closest we ever came to recording a 'concept' album. It’s full of Swindon and deep seams of life there, that run through myself, Colin, and Dave, (Terry too of course). It's populated by
members of our families, our hopes and dreams. The things we wished for, or feared, a stew of memories.” Andy Partridge – excerpted from the book Popartery, 2023 XTC’s seventh album, “The Big Express”
was virtually ignored on release, much as its immediate predecessor “Mummer” had been. If Mummer was XTC’s quiet album, this was its polar opposite: bright, brash, noisy - even cluttered on occasion if
the song demanded it - as it became a concept album of sorts, a partly autobiographical reflection on growing up in an industrial town, Swindon, with its history of engineering and railway accomplishments.
Perhaps in keeping with that tradition of technical innovation, the album also made extensive use of (at the time) new technology with Linn-Drum programming (alongside drummer Peter Phipps), E-mu
Emulator and other synths claiming space among the more traditional guitars, bass and drums mix under-pinning the vocals.
This technology was juxtaposed with technology of a slightly earlier pop/rock era as phasing, backwards tapes and the inclusion of a mellotron hinted at a psychedelic influence that would move more centrestage with the band’s next project – ‘The Dukes of Stratosphear’.
With XTC no longer touring, the sound radically different to any previous XTC album, in a musical climate where the upper end of the charts reflected national radio, producing the most mainstream result
for years: Lionel Richie, Sade, Spandau Ballet, Howard Jones, Tina Turner, Queen – Frank Sinatra’s final solo studio album… the space for a metallic, post-punk concept album about growing up amidst the ghosts
of Swindon’s industrial heritage proved non-existent.
Of course the songs were as good as on any other XTC album - a very high standard indeed – but they went largely unheard. Given that position, it would be easy to conclude that the timing was wrong for
the album. But the best musicians follow the music and allow the times to catch up with that; precisely what happened when XTC released its next album “Skylarking” in 1986. Just as “Mummer’s” reputation
(and sales) has increased over the years, “The Big Express” is now regarded as a ‘neglected classic’ of its era.
Now remixed by Steven Wilson in stereo, 5.1 Surround Sound & Dolby Atmos, the full impact and power of the album can be appreciated. Already given studio quality previews to an invited audience in London
and LA at L-Acoustics studios, the reaction was one of collective awe at the amount of newly apparent detail & clarity in the Atmos mixes. As ever with XTC, the full package on the Blu-ray disc includes every
recorded song from the era, ranging from demos through to the aforementioned Spatial Audio mixes
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