Anarcho-punk band Crass announced a reissue of all their albums in a compilation called The Crassical Collection, set for an October 2, 2020 release. Along with the announcement comes the release of a previously unheard version of one of the band’s last singles, “Sheep Farming In The Falklands.”
The collection will include their five full-length albums, post-breakup release Ten Notes on a Summer’s Day, their last compilation Best Before 1984, some more unreleased bonus tracks, several fold-out posters and two ~60-page booklets with notes and lyrics. It’s being put out by One Little Independent Records, formerly known as One Little Indian Records.
According to the band’s official statement, each album will be re-released on two CDs. The first will be the Abbey Road Studios re-masters of the original albums. The second will be “a mixture of rare and remastered studio recordings”
Drummer Penny Rimbaud commented on the material that made up Best Before 1984 and its second CD of related studio recordings saying “Half the band want it out, while the other half wanted out, but hey, here it is in all its glory.”
The new version of “Sheep Farming In The Falklands” sounds sharp with its remastered condition. It starts with a different intro than the original, which both sound like clips from television programs. The vocals sound a little tamer, shouted with less urgency than they’d been originally. Still, it picks up noise by the end, approaching chaos on the last stretch like the original did.
Crass were one of the first and most famous anarcho-punk bands, forming in 1977 and disbanding in 1984. Tired of the commercial gloss of their contemporaries, they amped up the noisiness and sang out about political issues such as gender equality, animal rights and environmentalism. Their five pre-breakup albums, The Feeding of the Five Thousand, Stations of the Crass, Penis Envy, Christ – The Album and Yes Sir, I Will have all garnered a considerable amount of acclaim, firmly placing Crass among the Punk Rock greats.
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