Bad Brains – Omega Sessions
By Andrew Duncan • Oct 14th, 2008 • Category: Categories, Greatest Album In The Universe, Punk/New Wave/HardcoreBad Brains
Omega Sessions
1997 – Victory
Origin: Washington, D.C.
Style: Punk
This is it. This is where it all began. Okay, maybe the Omega Sessions is not where it officially began. We have to go back a year or two with Black Dots, but this is the first remnants of Bad Brains on 24-track recording technology.
Not just for Bad Brains and hardcore punk historians and appreciators, but this quick EP is simply worth hearing the first renditions of now classic punk songs like “I Luv i Jah,” “At The Movies,” and “Attitude.”
And to listen to it in a 1980 context, this is the birth of D.C. hardcore. Out of all the bands that stemmed from that, Bad Brains is still considered to be at the forefront of that movement, fuzing their rasta influences with street punk and making it all accessible within a package of positivity and strive for change.
To hear what “I Against I” sounded like almost six years before it was released as the version we hear today is almost worth owning the CD alone. That and it contains two unreleased Glen E. Friedman photos of the band at the time of pressing.
To know where we are going, we have to know where we came from. And better yet, how we got there.
Cross-Reference: Rites of Spring, Bob Marley, Dead Boys
Andrew Duncan is a journalist who has migrated to the forces of academia. He has written for various publications including Chord, Heckler, Readyset...Aesthetic, and a vast array of alternative press contributions. When not roaming the streets of Indianapolis, he is either addicted to KXCI, making music, or striving to watch every film listed on IMDB.
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as happy as i was when i grabbed this less than conventionally packaged doghouse release (how much dough did they drop on this?)… i was made happier with black dots. maybe the 24 track-ness of it didnt hit me. the i against i album was overproduced to make it sound good, but rock against light is still the standard, height of their game, most tracks and only $8 depending where you find it album to get. maybe i should get omega sessions back out? ….
I do not discount “Black Dots” for a second. It’s a more fulfilling album than these quick takes. I need to go back and dig out my vinyl, but wasn’t it recorded with the band scattered throughout the house – H.R. was recorded in the bathroom? I will be writing about “Black Dots” soon and lead into “I Against I.” I just have to do some more reading on it. And you are so correct with the “Omega Sessions” and the packaging. It’s such a strange, I don’t even know if I want to call it a pull-out. I can barely get the CD out of the packaging these days.
“Omega’s” a cool listen, but you cannot go wrong with “Black Dots.”