In the early eighties when the Boston post-punk band Mission of Burma announced their decision to stop playing and recording due to guitarist Roger Millers tinnitus issues it seemed like the end of an era. The band enjoyed notoriety, not on the charts, but among music lovers/fans in general who were in love with the pure ferocity, quirky melodies, and raw lyrics espoused in songs like “Academy Fight Song” and “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver”.
As time wore on and enabling technologies grew, Miller found the balance between live performance volume and preserving his hearing. The band reunited in 2004 and after a 19-year hiatus put out ONoffON, followed by The Obliterati in 2006 and the Sound the Speed the Light in 2009. Each of the releases was well received, and justifiably so. Mission of Burma as a band, and singly as artists, have always strived to make the audience feel as if they were part of the journey. Speaking as a fan since ‘78, I have always been drawn by their sheer intensity—you certainly feel it at their live shows. This July, Mission of Burma released Unsound, continuing to push themselves to the limits.
The album opens with “Dust Devil,” a throbbing tune that is driven by a bass/drum combo that is what you have come to expect: primal, yet complex at the same time. In their own words they “juggle melody, groove, noise, depression, disruption, ecstasy… tension, release.”
“Semi-Pseudo Sort Of Plan” starts off with a quiet bass line that is immediately engulfed with guitars before transitioning into a full blown post-punk anthem, complete with synth loops and vocal harmonies. The songs “Sectionals in Mourning,” “Part The Sea,” “Add in Unison,” “Second Television,” and “7’s” bring you back to the band’s early punk sound. Controlled chaos and destruction are the main drivers and they had me longing for one more trip to the mosh pit.
“This Is Hi-Fi” brings out a more futuristic tone backed with a heavy industrial beat and a chorus that must be listened to on 11, this one seems to get better the more you listen to it. This is also evident in the tune “Fell?H20” (Fell Into The Water) crunching a steady backbeat and grating guitars over a funky rhythm you can feel the band pushing themselves and allowing each other to offer up their own contributions.
“What They Tell Me” is, in my mind, the “Academy Fight Song” redux, the response almost thirty years later. The closing song “Opener” is basically an instrumental ass-kicking with the only lyrical addition of “forget what you know/ forget what you know” added at the end. I would have loved to have been in-studio for this one, a complete rocker with Miller guitars wailing away over a manic Prescott/Conley background. All in all, these guys haven’t lost a step and are still pushing the boundaries of punk and post-punk while still maintaining the edge and feel of when the band first hit the scene.
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