Negativland, A Big 10-8 Place (side A)

A Big 10-8 Place marks something of the end of Negativland's early years. It's a messy collage of performances and samples—a crazy, fascinating listen without a particularly lucid focus or message. It doesn't really sound like anything else, and it's far out of it's time for 1983. Negativland quickly made their first three albums, and then took a long break. By 1987, when the follow-up Escape From Noise came out, they were making far more focused and coherent music. The wrap-around packaging is unusual and distinctive, where the later records look far more like commercial releases.