Bad Brains – Bad Brains

Seems lost in time / translation here on the 'Oggs; only this German press version is the very 1st commercial vinyl pressing of DC born Bad Brain's legendary/pretty much seminal debut LP, and in my humble opinion, still the best sounding record.

All that re-masters & polish- up's generally achieve is the perception of loudness / clarity to suit modern standards.
Unfortunately, the side- effect is almost always a loss of fidelity, distortion of details & a false overall sense of the original intended colour, vibe & energy. And with DIY hardcore, it just sounds wrong & looses that cheap vibe that made the music what it is!!

I've shifted both my later reissues in favour of this, the only way I want to soak up this cherished black- metal BOMB from here on.

Thanks to The Beastie Boys for turning me on to Bad Brains all those years ago, along with a stack of other good sh*t.

Does anyone have just the jacket to this? I own a copy of this with just the sleeve and the record.

The snap of the snare on Big Takeover!
Its why I came here.

Just pulled this out... It is flat, at the beginning a little crackle (but that is it), the volume is pumped, and IMO it sounds good on my modest system...

(Fluance RT-82 w/Acrylic Platter, ATN-XP cart/5 stylus. Nobsound T3 Phono Amp, Aiyima A07 Pro, Kicker KB6B, & Polk PSW10 Sub...Simple Low Cost Setup)...Happy Listening.

Does this pressing have the hidden track that has been present in some of the CD pressings?

It's never going to be a Steely Dan one step for audio recording quality but we know that, but what we have here is a very dynamic pressing, flat vinyl, well centred, quiet vinyl.
Also this thing will test out your systems low
end, secure your picture frames!!!!

Eclectic mix of styles, very entertaining. However I'm less than impressed with this remaster, it can throw out some high frequency ear-daggers on occasion, and the sound is a bit compressed. I suspect the original recording was lacking. Still worthy of a 5.

My copy is really noisy on Side A even after cleaning. It came in a paper sleeve. Not sure if it's micro scratches or the source material, but it's just super noisy. Side B is better

This record is made with great quality. As hard as it can be with old punk, nothing sounds mushed or washed out. You can really appreciate the backing vocals and ahead-of-their-time guitar tones. Slap it on beautiful red translucent wax and you got yourself a great vinyl.

This sounds incredible. A lot of records are not so different from the CD, provided they were both mastered and manufactured well. Yes, there is “warmth” and whatever, but people start talking about “soundstage” and other amorphous junk to justify spending ever more money. This, though, this totally blows the 90s CD I have out of the water, hands down. Aside from some potential future AI mix, it will not get any better than this.

There is not a lot of transcendent hardcore, but this is that. It really does not get much better. Minor Threat? Ha.

There has always been something about Rick Rubin that has not seemed right, a suspicion of his character. Now I know. I heard a recent interview with him, and he was talking about the early days of working with the Beastie Boys. He said MCA was always going on about the Bad Brains, how they were the greatest band, and it was clear that he could not comprehend this then or now. I thought, “Did you hear them?”