I was a young lawyer working in the business when this album was released. An older colleague, more buttoned down than me, was slated to speak on a panel at the then industry-important “New Music Seminar” (a sort of New York City version of SXSW). He asked me for a recommendation because, as a speaker, he got a free pass to hear a show. I urged him to see Bad Brains, who were performing at a club on the Lower East Side with the Circle Jerks and Vernon Reid and Living Colour. The next day, he told me what happened: “I showed up at the club early, wearing my suit and tie, carrying my briefcase. The guy at the door told me, “Hey, buddy, you know, we’ve got a dress code here.’” I gather they let him in anyway.
Listening to this album now, almost thirty years after its release, I’m still somewhat in awe of what these guys achieved on one record: power with the rhythmic constancy of a machine, twisting time signatures, lilting melodic lines against a throbbing, Reggae-influenced bass line, a dexterously played mixture of funk meets punk that is unpredictable and satisfying at the same time. Their influence is felt in some of the bigger, pop/punk hits of Living Colour, another favorite of mine from the era.
Despite the personnel changes, the varying commercial fortunes of the band, and an increasingly fragmented music market, this band, and this record in particular, remain enduring.
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These guys served up some tasty hooks, along with some very impressive musicianship in the guise of delivering underground music. Punk is, almost by definition, “anti-music”; a statement against slick, corporate pop/rock, made more credible by defiance of musical conventions. Bad Brains was able to fit within this genre despite the fact that they were probably better players than many of the musicians sitting in union sanctioned orchestra pits on Broadway. The superb instrumentation is complemented by great vocal work: “She’s Calling You” has a haunting quality; the track “Sacred Love” is sanctified by a vocal track recorded over a phone line from jail: “Return to Heaven” depends a harmonious refrain.
All of these tracks are set against those awesomely deep bass tones and machine-gun drumming that seem to be characteristic of the genre. What relieves it from tedium is the constantly changing interplay between a wide range of different vocal techniques and sheer instrumental prowess. This band could turn on a dime, come to a dead stop– silence for a beat- then back into the buzz saw of sound, turn and swing into a sweet melody. In some ways, Bad Brains proves that music is defined as much by the moments of silence between the beats as it is by the playing.
The sonics here aren’t bad, either. A lot of these bands were recorded in lo-fi, either because there was no budget or, given what they were playing, there was little need to create a good sounding recording. While not an “audiophile spectacular,” this record captures the deep bass tones and has enough dynamic range to give the drums and guitars some punch. The record was mastered by Bob Ludwig, and my copy, which I bought new years ago, has quiet surfaces and sounds great when you goose the volume.