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Genre: New Wave, Art Pop, Alternative Rock, Pop Rock
Year Of Release: 1984/2023
Duration: 04:00:20

Label: Galileo
Quality: Blu-ray
Bit rate: 24/96, 24/48, 16/48
Format: DTS HD-MA, Dolby True HD, LPCM
Number of channels: 5.1, 7.1 w Atmos, 2.0

“The Big Express is the closest we’ve come to a concept album. It’s full of Swindon and the depths of life there that run through me, Colin and Dave (and Terry, of course). It is populated by members of our families, our hopes and dreams. The things we wished for or feared, a stew of memories.” – Andy Partridge

XTC’s seventh album, “The Big Express”, was virtually ignored upon its release, much like its immediate predecessor “Mummer”. If “Mummer” was XTC’s quiet album, “The Big Express” was the exact opposite: bright, shrill, loud – occasionally even overloaded when the song demanded it – as it became a kind of concept album, a partly autobiographical reflection on growing up in an industrial town, Swindon, with its history of engineering and railways.

Perhaps in keeping with this tradition of technical innovation, the album also made extensive use of (then) new technologies such as Linn drum programming (alongside drummer Peter Phipps), the E-mu emulator and other synthesizers, which took its place in the classic guitar, bass and drum line-up, and helped support the vocals.

This technology was juxtaposed with that of a slightly earlier pop/rock era, when phasing, tapes played backwards and the use of the Mellotron hinted at a psychedelic influence that would become more prominent with the band’s next project – “The Dukes of Stratosphear”. With XTC no longer touring, the sound was radically different from any previous XTC album, in a musical climate where the top end of the charts was mirrored by national radio, delivering the most mainstream output in years: Lionel Richie, Sade, Spandau Ballet, Howard Jones, Tina Turner, Queen – Frank Sinatra’s last solo studio album…. the space for a metallic post-punk concept album about growing up amidst the ghosts of Swindon’s industrial heritage was not there.

Of course, the songs were as good as on any other XTC album – a very high standard indeed – but they went largely unheard. Given this position, it would be easy to conclude that the timing of the album was wrong. But the best musicians follow the music and allow time to catch up with them; which is exactly what happened when XTC released their next album “Skylarking” in 1986. Just as the reputation (and sales figures) of “Mummer” have risen over the years, “The Big Express” is now considered a neglected classic of its era.

Now the album has been remixed by Steven Wilson in stereo, 5.1 surround sound and Dolby Atmos to bring out the full impact and power of the album. Studio-quality audio samples have already been given to an invited audience in London and LA at the L-Acoustics studios. The reaction was collective amazement at the many new details and the clarity of the Atmos mixes. As always with XTC, the complete package on the Blu-ray disc includes every recorded song from that era, from the demos to the aforementioned Spatial Audio mixes.

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