Michael Fremer

They’ve been out of commission for 22 years, but you’d never know it listening to Mission of Burma’s powerful, bracingly-fresh, time-warp of a post-punk/art-rocking noise assault, recorded last year. It sounds more like someone lowered the stylus on a record that’s been spinning silently for decades than the premier effort of a re-formed trio of middle- aged geezers who sound as youthfully exuberant as they did in 1979.

Calling himself Palace Music, or Palace Brothers, or Push, and of late Bonnie “Prince” Billy, the enigmatic Will Oldham, aided by a group of musical cohorts, has been making a spare brand of dry, mournful country/rock music for more than a decade. Before the term alta-country had been coined, it could be argued, the 34 year old Oldham had both invented and perfected the musical form on a series of genre-shattering albums issued on the Chicago based Drag City label beginning in 1993.

That’s how they spell “hippie” in the UK, I guess, so don’t blame me. Sherwood is a well-respected re-mix artist who’s spent the past twenty years re-mixing or producing the work of others. This danceable double LP, saturated with rhythmic collages, melds dub-style reggae, old school Jamaican “toasting,” Pakistani Qawwal, and a potpouri of other world musical paraphernailia—heavily spiced with sound effects and musique concrete—into a delicious and nutritious sonic stew.

While Four Sail was an obligation owed to the old label (Elektra) after Lee had signed a new contract with Blue Thumb, and while Lee shows signs of losing his muse, the album has actually added luster over the years, as in hindsight, the brilliance of Lee’s eclectic, restless mind comes through with greater clarity, even as the originality hangs mostly on his arranging skills.