For a 1977-birthed hardcore punk band gone café reggae, Bad Brains still manages to sound startlingly youthful. Though their music feels very un-2012, confident of its select place within a niche, it expanded. The grooves are free and alive, contented to roll up some sonic blunts before rolling out sprawling, stoned musical fusions. Incorporating funk, hip-hop, and classic rock riffing into reggae-punk jams without sounding gimmicky or disjointed, Bad Brains has understandably mellowed out over the decades. On their first record in five years, Into the Future, however, the ever-changing band has put their claws back on, adding a tad more ferocity to their genre-bending experiments.
London-spawned lead singer, Paul D. Hudson, or H.R. (standing for “Human Rights,” not “Human Resources,” as an office space could never contain the now 56 year old) toys with varied theatrical vocal inflections that move from a possessed cat snarl to David Bowie-like vibrato to slow-burning Bob Marley impersonation. He summons Jah with Rastafarian zeal on “Maybe a Joyful Noise,” and addresses racial politics in audio clips throughout Into the Future, placing the record thematically (and often musically) somewhere between Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet and Marley’s Exodus.
Into the Future is also a tribute to the late Adam Yauch (Beastie Boys’ MCA), H.R.’s friend and producer of Bad Brain’s Build a Nation. The final track of the album is titled MCA Dub and ends Into the Future in a plaintive but surprisingly peaceful manner. For much of the record, the Beastie Boys’ wild rap-rock exuberance is paralleled by Bad Brains, even if the latter B.B. band is more of a doped-up lover than a right-to-party fighter.
With a scattershot strangeness that recalls Pere Ubu, the Pixies, and Prince, Bad Brains are like no other punk act produced by their era. The longevity and sincerity of their creative output is admirable, even if the chaotic lack of focus in their music at times leaves the listener wishing for a more consistent and organized approach. Into the Future contains unhinged tracks that synthesize the styles of the past, highlighting the band’s versatility while suggesting more promise and possibility than the record is able to yield.
Grade: B
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