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Mission of Burma: Einstein’s Day 

A dynamic quartet hailing from Boston, Mission of Burma’s most influential output spanned a mere four years before a twenty five year hiatus in their musical career. However, the effusive production of “avant-garde” indie music created within this brief period was enough to inspire artists across entire spectrum of genres over the past three decades. Their innovative use of sound as discrete physical packages which can take on different qualities from rearrangement in space has an aesthetic that is hard to categorize. Interference patterns created by amplifiers, distortion pedals, and tape loops act much like chemical bonding- the combination of two particular elements resulting in an entirely new entity with its own peculiar properties. Perhaps it can be best described as “ordered chaos.” Subject matter spans space-time, modern art, punk violence, and typical love songs. The lyrics of “Einstein’s Day” evoke a 1920’s American Modernism viewpoint, in which the objective appearance of reality is called into question, ironically, by science itself. The discoveries of Einstein implied that not only was there a multiplicity of subjective perspectives, but of true scientific dimensions in a shifting and unstable universe. The tantalizing possibility that the exploration of the human experience was in some way related to phenomena that could be scientifically explored became a way for man’s mind as shown in art to replicate a large, universal pattern. The symbiotic relationship of science and art is beautifully delineated: 


Chairs next to the windows  
Carpets touch the walls  
Time slides through the windows  
And slips behind the walls  
In the dark of night or in the light of day  
Underneath the painting  
Where it once was clear  
Well I was rolled in water  
I was rolled out past the pier  
And in the tray of colors a whirlwind appeared 


Entrained in an ethereal sonic solution, the beautiful “sound art” percolates into the words, imbuing them with a quality that invokes infinity. One can feel the exhilaration of possibility that unites scientists and artists alike in their search for truth.  


-Ashley Cohen  


Lyric source: http://www.lyricstime.com/mission-of-burma-einstein-s-day-lyrics.html

General biographic information: http://www.missionofburma.com/home.html 

Image Source: http://k43.pbase.com/o6/67/226467/1/70394362.7pa4kQpy.BurmaKickDodgeClint.jpg

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