veröffentlichung La-La Land Records: BAD BOYS: 30th ANNIVERSARY EXPANDED & REMASTERED LIMITED EDITION (2-CD SET) (Mark Mancina)

[Alexander Grodzinski]

Music by Mark Mancina

Limited Edition of 3000 Units

STARTS SHIPPING MID-MARCH

La-La Land Records and Sony Pictures celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the 1995 blockbuster big-screen action/comedy BAD BOYS, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, and directed by Michael Bay, with this remixed, remastered and expanded limited edition 2-CD re-issue of acclaimed composer Mark Mancina’s iconic original motion picture score.

Mark Mancina’s (SPEED, TWISTER, TARZAN) exhilarating action score to the film SPEED established the composer as a fresh and notable musical voice, making him the perfect choice for BAD BOYS, a bold and exciting new take on the battle-tested buddy-cop/action formula. Mancina expertly harnesses superstars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s explosive comedic and dramatic chemistry, along with Director Michael Bay’s high-octane action mayhem, creating a legendary work that helped change and influence action film scoring into the 21st century and one that still serves as the musical thematic foundation of the entire BAD BOYS franchise decades later.

La-La Land’s original 2007 single disc CD release of BAD BOYS was compromised by the only available music elements at that time, resulting in some of that release’s program in mono. Now presented in full stereo for the first time, this all-new remastered and expanded 2-CD re-issue is a major upgrade in both sonic quality and content, finally allowing Mancina’s work to shine in all its brilliance!

Produced by Stéphane Humez and mixed and mastered by Maxime Marion from newly discovered 32-track digital masters, this deluxe presentation of BAD BOYS features the film score presentation on Disc One and Bonus Tracks on Disc Two. Limited to 3000 Units, this release’s exclusive liner notes are by writer Kaya Savas and include new interviews with composer Mark Mancina and additional composer Nick Glennie-Smith. The sharp art design is by Dan Goldwasser.

TRACK LISTING:

DISC 1

SCORE PRESENTATION

1. Funky Logo – Car Jacking 3:39

2. Bad Boys Main Title – The Heist* 6:11

3. Funky Brothers To P.D. 0:38

4. Air Conditioning Inspection* 1:09

5. Jojo What You Know 0:41

6. Dead Guy 5:14

7. He’s The Person I’d Call* 0:55

8. Killing Max 4:18

9. The Boys Find Max 1:34

10. Into Lois’ Apartment 1:11

11. Max Logan’s Best Friend 0:53

12. Escape From Julie’s 2:48

13. You’re Going To Leave Me Alone? 0:54

14. Don’t “Honey Baby” Me 1:04

15. My Bologna Has A First Name* 3:59

16. Julie’s Got A Gun 0:42

17. Escape From Club Hell – Ether Chase* 4:36

18. We Don’t Want To Lose You 0:41

19. I Mean Like Funny 2:13

20. Stake Out – Interrogation 1:26

21. Tailing Lab Tech – Blown Cover 1:39

22. Busted* 1:00

23. Footchase 4:25

24. Fouchet Calling* 0:35

25. Hangar Shootout* 9:17

26. Cobra Chase 1:47

27. Fouchet’s Death 3:03

TOTAL DISC TIME 66:30

 

DISC 2

BONUS TRACKS

1. Theme From Bad Boys 4:15

2. Funky Brothers To P.D. (Demo Version) 0:29

3. Jojo What You Know (Film Version) 0:34

4. Dead Guy (Alternate) 3:35

5. The Boys Find Max (Alternate Version 1) 1:23

6. The Boys Find Max (Alternate Version 2) 1:24

7. Escape From Julie’s (Demo Version) 2:47

8. My Bologna Has A First Name (Alternate) 4:05

9. Escape From Club Hell (Demo Version)* 1:53

10. Escape From Club Hell (Film Version)* 2:01

11. Footchase (Demo Version) 4:24

12. Fouchet Calling (Alternate)* 0:35

13. Fouchet’s Death (Alternate) 3:03

14. Theme From Bad Boys (Funky Boys Remix) 5:38

TOTAL DISC TIME 36:08

TOTAL ALBUM TIME 1:42:38

 

* Written by Mark Mancina & Nick Glennie-Smith

 

This is a CD format release

[Lars Potreck]

Hier bin ich noch am überlegen. Klanglich hört sich das sehr gut an. Es gibt zusätzlich Material und das Cover sieht auch wesentlich besser aus. Ich glaube den hole ich mir auch nochmal.😁

[TheRealNeo]

Hab natürlich das 2007er-Album, aber hier scheint ein Upgrade zu lohnen.

[Mistermaffay]

Hm, der Inhalt ist identisch zur 2007er Veröffentlichung. Hier von einer Erweiterung zu sprechen ist schon frech. Es gibt kein neues Material (die sinnlosen Alternates zähle ich nicht). 
Und dass Teile der 2007er Version in Mono sind, ist auch völlig neu - wurde zuvor nie kommuniziert und ist mir auch nicht aufgefallen (obwohl ich die 2007er CD sicher schon ein paar Jahre nicht mehr eingelegt habe und diesen Umstand einmal final prüfen werde). 

Man dreht sich also mit den ständig neuen Veröffentlichungen mal wieder im Kreis. 

Jedoch können sich die Mancina Fans freuen, die die alte La-La Land verpasst haben und den späteren Wucherpreis nicht zahlen wollten. 

[Mistermaffay]

P.S.: Von einer 30th Anniversary Edition kann aber auch nicht wirklich die Rede sein 😄. Dafür hätte die neue CD bereits 2025 erscheinen müssen - aber nun gut, vielleicht gab es wieder irgendwelche Verzögerungen wegen fehlender Freigaben etc.  

[Lars Potreck]

vor 37 Minuten schrieb Mistermaffay:

Hm, der Inhalt ist identisch zur 2007er Veröffentlichung. Hier von einer Erweiterung zu sprechen ist schon frech. Es gibt kein neues Material (die sinnlosen Alternates zähle ich nicht). 
Und dass Teile der 2007er Version in Mono sind, ist auch völlig neu - wurde zuvor nie kommuniziert und ist mir auch nicht aufgefallen (obwohl ich die 2007er CD sicher schon ein paar Jahre nicht mehr eingelegt habe und diesen Umstand einmal final prüfen werde). 

Man dreht sich also mit den ständig neuen Veröffentlichungen mal wieder im Kreis. 

Jedoch können sich die Mancina Fans freuen, die die alte La-La Land verpasst haben und den späteren Wucherpreis nicht zahlen wollten. 

Ist es nicht, denn es ist eine Expanded Edition und kein Expanded Score. Und im Vergleich zur ersten Veröffentlichung (Edition) wurde diese um eine CD erweitert. Daher Expanded Edition. Ob man die CD mit den Alternates braucht muss jeder selbst entscheiden. Ich denke aber klanglich wurde nochmal gut nachgebessert. Die Jungs vom hans-zimmer.com Team haben bei den bisherigen Veröffentlichungen sehr ordentliche Arbeit geleistet.

Bezüglich des Mono Tracks wurde im FSM Forum folgendes geschrieben. Es handelt sich dabei um den Track Killing Max.

Zitat

The previous release had a mono version of this track (with some stereo reverb to make it sound a bit wider). You can’t swap channels from mono. 😃

We remade the mix from top to bottom using the multitrack material. The original mono DAT + DVD 5.1 isolated score (mixed down in stereo) were used as references for this new version.Sometimes, the film mix and DAT mix differ, that’s where you get the different versions we included on this album (Escape from Club Hell!).

We started the mix from scratches (had to redo all the pan, reverb, gain, EQ… for each instrument layer – tricky job!).But we’re die hard fans of this score, and if it is not a 100% match… it’s at least 99.8% haha

Thank you for the “huge sonic improvement”. Much appreciated!Maxime

 

[TheRealNeo]

Unterstütze dahingehend gerne die Kaufkraft, um zu zeigen, dass da Interesse besteht an Veröffentlichungen dieser Art aus dieser Zeit, wobei man sich bei 90er Mark Mancina-VÖs ja eigentlich nicht beschweren kann.

[Lars Potreck]

Hier noch einige Anmerkungen zum Mix der neuen Edition. Aus dem FSM Forum.

Zitat

Okay guys, here’s my breakdown of the mix for this new edition of Mark Mancina’s BAD BOYS!

Bad Boys is a dream project for me. I loved the film back in the ’90s, and managed to get my hands on a promotional CD by Mark Mancina at the time, containing about 30 minutes of the score combined with music from Speed 2. Then came the first LLL release in 2007. I obviously jumped on it. But I was a little frustrated because the mono tracks from the promo were also mono on this album (about 50% of the complete score). The music experience felt frustrating. Nevertheless, the album played hundreds of times in my CD player for years.

When Stéphane mentioned the possibility of working on Bad Boys in 2025, we only had one word on lips: “stereo.” The goal was to get our hands on the original stereo (or 5.1) recordings once and for all and secure them. When Sony sent their digitized DAT masters, we were disappointed: the mono files problem remained the same. The previous edition had been created from these files. It seemed the stereo mixes were lost forever. Sad news.

But a few weeks later, Stéphane shared a find from the Sony archives: 32-tracks tapes titled “Bad Boys – All Cues.” It contained the complete score, separated into layers of solo, unmixed instruments. By unmixed, I mean the recordings were raw: no effect (reverb, delay etc), volume, or EQ. And all the layers were center-mixed. This meant we would have to start from scratch to get as close as possible to Alan Meyerson’s original mix. Naturally, being fans of the score, we jumped at the chance, fully aware of the work ahead.

The first step was to sort everything. The tapes didn’t contain the cues in chronological order, and there was no cue sheet attached. Some tracks were even spread across several tapes, so we had to find all the recordings and sync them. Luckily, we knew the score inside and out… and fortunately, everything was there (+more)!

I then undertook the cleaning of each audio layer: denoising, declicking, decrackling… my goal was to work with the cleanest possible sources for each cue to guarantee optimal mixing and listening quality. Tedious, but necessary.

Then came the mixing. I created different effect templates similar to those used by Alan Meyerson (I even used the plugins he recommends in his masterclasses).

Each instrument had to be adjusted to re-create the sonic balance of the tracks as we knew them from the sessions, but also as in the film, which can sometimes differ. So I started mixing in mono, based on the original DATs, to get as close as possible to the sonic experience offered on the original LLL album / DAT masters.

Once the balance was done, as a reference I used an homemade stereo mixdown of the 5.1 isolated score (available on the film’s DVD released in the early 2000s) to achieve an accurate stereo image.

The final stage, making the mix my own, involved listening carefully to every detail to adjust and highlight what seemed relevant. Sometimes to get closer to the original recording, sometimes to improve it with modern tools. Add some boost in the bass region or clean some frequencies on the guitar, etc… Therefore, it’s not strictly the original mix (which has simply disappeared), but a faithful interpretation.

However, Mark Mancina and Nick Glennie-Smith both listened to it carefully and gave us their blessing. Mark Mancina even specified that “this score again sounds like it did when recorded in 1995.” A particularly touching (and reassuring!) statement for me.

Among the tracks that required special attention: Funky Logos, which isn’t “written” but rather cobbled together from stems, recreated here in true stereo. Car Jacking (an edit of Theme From Bad Boys), which methodically reproduces the film’s mix but with refined transitions to preserve musicality. Killing Max, the big track that was frustrating to listen to in mono, upgraded to make it more impactful. The rediscovered guitar at the beginning of Escape From Julie’s (absent from the DAT mixes/LLL2007 release, but present in the film). The three versions of Escape From Club Hell (the demo, the Mancina version, and the film version). Fouchet’s Death, which was previously available in stereo but which we wanted to thoroughly clean up for optimal listening.

And finally, the Funky Boys Remix: during the “sorting” stage, we identified a second batch of recordings for the track Theme From Bad Boys. I synchronized these elements with the original track and discovered numerous sonic layers never heard before.

I started playing around with this new material. Stéphane and I quickly decided to create some kind of an alternate track as an extra for our album. The alternate mix evolved into a re-mix organically incorporating other elements from the score. It was a bit of a tribute, and a great showcase for all those unused, never-heard-before recordings. As it is, it works as a nice outro, like a festive, unused End Credits track.

By the way, let’s acknowledge producer Stéphane Humez’s tenacity (with the help of Dan Goldwasser) in securing the approval of Michael Bay, Martin Lawrence, and Will Smith for this album. This confirms the presence of both actors on the cover and liner notes.

Kaya Savas’s tireless work on the extremely comprehensive booklet, including interviews with Mark Mancina and Nick Glennie-Smith, who both discuss the score at length. Dan Goldwasser’s splendid artwork completes the experience. And a big THANK YOU to Lalaland Records for allowing us to bring this dream project to life.

I look forward to your feedback once the album has been blasting in your living room!

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