The earliest studio session from hardcore’s great detonators arrives remastered, furious and improbably fresh.
When Bad Brains posted a teaser on Instagram on 23 September, complete with the phrase ‘Are You Ready’, the suspense was half the fun. What, exactly, could one of the most influential bands in alternative and extreme music possibly still have up its sleeve? The answer, it turns out, was not some reunion gimmick or deluxe nostalgia exercise but something far better: the legendary recording from their first studio session laid down in about an hour, now finally given the kind of presentation it deserves.
What makes this release so thrilling is not simply its historical value, though that alone would be enough. It is the sound of a band already bursting at the seams with ideas, velocity and intent. From the moment ‘Jammin’ at the Atlantis’ kicks in, you hear a group with the energy, urgency and sheer appetite that would later define their monumental self-titled record. The performance feels young, rabid and locked in, but never sloppy. If anything, what is most striking is how heavy these recordings are while remaining so clear.
A great deal of credit belongs to Ian MacKaye, whose hand in remastering helps preserve exactly what punk too often loses in restoration: impact. This should be a mantra by now. Punk can be cleaned up without being neutered. It can be remastered, sharpened and made more audible without losing the grime under its fingernails. That balance is difficult to get right, but here it works. These tracks sound vivid and forceful but not museum-polished.
‘Pay to Cum’, that explosion of a song, benefits enormously from this treatment. Its iconic riff, which feels as if it was designed to propel an entire generation headfirst into the wall, sounds thicker and more muscular here than on both Black Dots and the self-titled album. There is something newly brutal in the remaster, something that gives the riff extra depth without sanding away any of its menace. Oddly enough, at moments it almost edges towards the sort of black metal guitar tone that would emerge in the 1990s, and I mean that as a genuine compliment. The idea of Bad Brains, with the remastering tied to a Minor Threat legend, accidentally brushing up against the spirit of Mayhem is not something anyone expects to write, but somehow it makes perfect sense once you hear it.
This version also feels oddly well suited to its place in popular culture. ‘Pay to Cum’ appeared in Martin Scorsese’s After Hours in 1985, blasting through one of the film’s most delirious moments, and there is something about this remaster that makes that connection feel even sharper. It has that same wired, nocturnal panic. It sounds like motion and bad decisions, like a city refusing to let you breathe.
If there is one slight production casualty here, it is ‘Don’t Bother Me’. The drums are a little unfortunate, and that is putting it kindly. Ever since I first heard the Black Dots version a few years ago, there has been something about the drum sound that faintly recalls Lars Ulrich on St. Anger, and this remaster only brings that resemblance closer to the surface. It is not disastrous, but it is distracting. Still, the guitars bite beautifully, the vocals are crystal clear, and the song retains enough of its raw charm that the odd percussive clang can be forgiven.
More than anything, this release stands as a testament to Bad Brains’ hunger in 1979. It captures a band already in possession of the qualities that would make them so enduring: precision, speed, charisma and a sense that the music might combust at any second. The mastering is excellent, the sequencing is lean, and even without the reggae detours that I have always thought gave their self-titled album an extra dimension, this session never feels slight.
In fact, its brevity is part of the magic. For about 10 minutes, it delivers more adrenaline, invention and personality than many bands manage across entire careers. It has been ideal company on short commutes, and it feels just as likely to serve as a gateway for new listeners as it is to satisfy those already converted. Decades on, Bad Brains still do not sound like relics. They sound like a warning shot.