From the early days of The Moving Parts and 1979's "Peking Spring", Mission of Burma have always been either a little ahead or behind of the curve. They burst onto the American punk scene at a time when if you weren't hardcore, you weren't punk rock. While Henry Rollins was singing "Gimmie Some More", Clint Conley was singing about "Progress". While everyone was holding fast to the three chord punk ethos, Burma opted for music theory and time signature changes; even to this day Peter Prescott's drumming is something to marveled at. They were one of the first bands to alter their sound with magnetic tape loops. As interesting as the Volcano Suns, Consonant, and Miller's projects were/are- Burma is a behemoth. As Prescott says, it's a "four head hydra trying to create unity without canceling or censoring each head". With guitarist Roger Miller's tinnitus worsening, and the other band members fed up with the road and lifestyle, Mission of Burma broke up in 1983 after a disastrous farewell show with Black Flag. They only had a few singles, one LP, and one live compilation to their name. Fast forward to 2002, the band reunited with all the original members (sans Martin Swope, the original tape manipulator) and began extensive touring, releasing 3 albums for Matador in the 2000's. Their latest release, "Unsound", released by UK's Fire Records, is a continuation of the raw and melodic sound their known for. Songs like "Dust Devil" and "Semi Pseudo-Sort of Plan" hold up just as well as "That's When I Reach for My Revolver", or "Academy Fight Song". Ever experimenting, they each wrote songs on different instruments, and got producer/tape manipulator Bob Weston to contribute some horn sections on several tracks on the album. Since they have reunited they have more then quadrupled the amount of material they put out when they were originally formed. The kicker is that it is just as powerful. Burma are yet again defying expectations, and along with Iggy Pop, have proved themselves to be the elder statesmen of punk rock. No one expected Burma to reunite, much less tour. Much less record an album, nor five for that matter. The band members themselves call the event "inexplicable". But as Miller sang once, "That's justice/that is justice".