Mission Of Burma
On-Off-On
Matador Records
2004
OLE-613-2
missionofburma.com
Seems to be these days that all the old punks are popping out of the woodwork to give it one more rip. Most of the acts are painful to watch and reek of “mid-life crisis”. However, Mission Of Burma is not one of these bands. The lads in Burma are obviously out to have some fun again and show all the newbie punks that they can still buzz and growl with the best of them. On-Off-On is an evolution of the Mission Of Burma sound. The explosive guitars and thrusting vocals are in place, but they contain a richness not found on the early recordings. Swopes famous tape loops are gone, but they are replaced with some soaring vocal overlays and harmonies, that brings Mission Of Burma closer to pop than punk. Songs like “Falling” are a good example of this which features massive female backing vocals on the choruses, making it sound more like Superchunk or Guided By Voices. Still though, the boys manage to carry the day with tracks like “Fake Blood” and “Playland” and still have the "reel and stagger" like the Burma of old.
On-Off-On is a good re-introduction to Mission Of Burma and should send punks both young and old off to the music shop to find all the back-releases.
-John Southern