Artist Alert: Mission of Burma | |
by Anonymous
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Era: 1981
Good Album: Signals, Calls, & Marches
Good Song: Max Ernst
Sort of maybe like these bands: Fugazi, Modest Mouse, Trail of Dead
Why try them: As touching as The Wizard of Oz in German.
Maybe I'm just talking to the wrong people, but I have this lingering suspicion that Mission of Burma has been criminally overlooked. While I can understand not hearing them frequently these days, they broke up in 1983, the fact that they are rarely remembered at all is mind-boggling. If a band was ever ahead of its time, it was Mission of Burma. They shape their music with jagged guitars, sharp, thumping basslines, and ultra-rhythmic drumming that beats with tribal ferocity. Throw in the subtle tape manipulations of Martin Swope and you get a dark, urgent mix that can range from beautifully disconcerting to extremely haunting. Its powerful stuff.
Traces of Mission of Burma in today's music scene are few and far between. Moby covers "That's When I Reach For My Revolver" on his Animal Rights album. While I dig the Moby version, the raw intensity of MOB just can't be duplicated. I wouldn't be surprised to hear it if current musical darlings Modest Mouse and The Microphones wore out a copy or two of "Signals...". I won't get into the thematic elements of Mission of Burma's music. Suffice to say; this is an intelligent, literate, band worth checking out. The album to start with is, Signals, Calls, and Marches.
author:
eamonn |
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