Mission of Burma

The Definitive Editions I, II and III (Matador)

Rock fans of a certain age may remember Mission of Burma as a brief eruption of noise and flash that nonetheless echoed across the DIY scene of the 1980s: the square root of all American indie guitar bands. The Boston foursome got together in 1979 and broke up by 1983. Which is to say, as relatively prehistoric as 10 B.C. (Before Cobain).

Though since reunited and making great new work, the band enjoyed maximum impact from a small body of songs it recorded for the Ace of Hearts label. Matador’s comprehensive reissues of the group’s three albums reclaim an essential and often overlooked facet of the American post-punk story. The 1981 debut EP Signals, Calls and Marches still bristles, a perfect storm of tight rhythms, dynamic swerve and the melodic din of guitars. The classic single “Academy Fight Song” is an elemental add-on, while “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver” swirls and yelps with a passion absent in the horrid Moby cover.

The studio epic, 1982’s Vs., gave Roger Miller’s frantic, chiming guitar a broad canvas upon which to splatter, but for all their intensity, tracks such as “Trem Two” and “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate” were about process and sustained tension teetering on the edge of chaos. It’s no surprise that Miller had debilitating hearing problems, which forecast the band’s looming demise. Listening back now, the live Horrible Truth argues for Burma as a Yankee parallel to the dark textural processionals of Joy Division and Spartan cold crush of the Gang of Four (“Peking Spring”). Despite their art gambits, the members of MOB were punks at heart (“Learn How”), seeking death and transfiguration in ecstatic collisions of sound and Stooges-like frenzies. Go fun burn man!