Big Black: Sound Of Impact

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Not 1986.  Not 2 (But 1)

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This is, without any doubt, the mighty Big Black’s finest hour.  Superb though their studio material is, this live album has a ferocious intensity which takes it to a whole new level.  Such is the quality of the musicianship, it doesn’t trade that intensity for a shambolic performance – this is as tight as anything they recorded.  The tracklisting is superb too – it works well as a career retrospective.

Big Black, in case you don’t know was Steve Albini’s first band, at least the first anyone took notice of.  He is, by some distance my favourite guitarist, and while he’s never an easy listen, he sounds like no-one else before or since.  He’s also known for some pretty offensive lyrics, but he always claimed they existed only out of necessity, and for me the band works better when the lyrics are downplayed and the words indecipherable as they (mostly) are here.  Shock is supposed to be a part of punk, but Albini’s lyrics often go way beyond that into the frankly unbearable.  In a way they fit with the full-on sonic assault of the music, but still…

The album itself has a somewhat curious history.  It was claimed to be a bootleg, but in fact was a disguised official release.  The “label” doesn’t really exist – it was in fact issued by Blast First!, their UK label, and it had normal distribution, although it was rather expensive.  There was an initial pressing of 1000, followed up by another of 500, all numbered.  Blast First! then put out another 500 without the band’s permission which caused a permanent rift.  Out there in internetland, it’s claimed Albini walked away from Blast First! because of it, but clearly he didn’t because his next band, whose name I’m not going to type here, was on the label.  My copy is one of the unauthorised 500.

There’s some attempt to make this look like a bootleg – there’s no mention of the band on the cover, the artwork is very cheap, and the printed track listing is fictitious.  However that’s where the shoddiness ends.  I’ve already described the quality of the performances, but it’s also a really well compiled album.  It derives from three separate soundboard recordings, and it’s obvious a lot of trouble was taken to pick the best from each.  It loses a little as a result – it’s not a continuous performance, but the sheer class of what there is more than makes up for it.

The sound quality is also interesting.  Big Black were never a band to flatter your hi-fi with, nor has Albini ever been in to messing with the sound to make it more palatable.  He sees himself more as an archivist, documenting what bands, including his own actually sound like, which is what he’s done here.  So this album is tiring to listen to, it jarrs, but that’s what the band sounded like…

The title of the album, Sound Of Impact refers to the last element in transcribed conversations of flight crews in the moments before plane crashes.  The back cover is entirely devoted to these conversations, which make for chilling reading.  You can read them here, alongside a typically angry Albini essay.

Further listening? I think the Atomizer LP was their best and is most easily available on the Rich Man’s Eight Track CD.  Songs About Fucking runs it a close second but is harder to find.  I might post a vinyl rip of it at some point if it really is as unavailable as it seems on the web site of everyone’s favourite tax dodgers.

12 comments
  1. Amazing posts as always – but isn’t this the Durutti Column link? 😉

    1. The file name it links to is correct. I’m just downloading it now to check that the music it contains is what it should be – but the file is much bigger than the Durutti one, so it should be OK.

    2. Now downloaded and checked – it’s definately Big Black.

  2. I was at one of the shows this release comes from- The No Bar And Grill in muncie Indiana featured Big Black during finals. I was the guy that albini calls an asshole over the firecrackers in the mosh-pit. It was a tiny basement place with no ventilation- Albini lit a brick of firecrackers and threw them into the midst of the pogueing kids- It made for difficult breathing and I yelled at Albini- his response was that there are some people that can\\\’t see, or some shit. There was a video shot of the performance and I have a copy- it was a single light bulb sort of affair so the lighting sucks and it is murky, but I can be clearly seen sitting on top of the smaller sub box for the PA. I was 19 years old and tripping on 6 hits of purple blotter after 2 days without sleep and finals. Good times…

    1. Wow, that’s quite story. I wondered what that argument was about – without the backstory it doesn’t make much sense. It sounds like he was a total asshole, as you said.

      He yelled at me at a gig too – a Shellac one maybe 5 years ago. I was wearing a Shellac T shirt, but the band have never done any T shirts, so mine was a dodgy ebay one. I’d have been happy to buy an official one if he’d bothered to do any. Shame I never ended up on a live album like you did…

      Maybe he’ll yell at me again if he ever finds this blog..

      I love listening to Steve Albini, but I don’t think I’d like to meet him.

      1. funny… once at a Shellac show in the early 90s in Kalamazoo, MI, I threw some firecrackers at the floor of the stage. (This was in a tiny tiny storefront turned into a club.) The drummer, some wacky guy that looked like he’d listened to too many Alarm albums (and didn’t fit the style of Albini or the rest of the band), stopped playing and threw a hissy fit. To my surprise, Albini was very cool and said that Big Black used to do this all the time, so why can’t the fans do it now? He ordered the drummer to get back to work!

        thanks for this boot! haven’t heard it in ages!!

  3. Todd Trainer does look a bit strange, but I absolutely love his drumming. His style is very individual, so I guess not everyone’s going to like it.

    What is it with Albini and firecrackers???

    I posted some Shellac vinyl too if you want more Albini goodness.

  4. It appears that the file has been taken down 🙁
    Could you re-upload it?

    1. It’s on the list…

  5. Great album which I stupidly got rid of in my great vinyl cull of 1992. Any chance of reposting this? Cheers!

  6. I had intended to do a new rip of this, but with my turnatble and all my vinyl boxed up ready to move, the old one will have to do. New link above.

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