UK anarcho-punk legends Crass have announced The Crassical Collection, which will feature remastered reissues of all six of their studio albums and their 1986 compilation Best Before 1984, plus previously unreleased bonus tracks, new artwork by longtime collaborator Gee Vaucher, new fold-out posters, and a 60-page booklet of lyrics and "extensive liner notes from band members Penny Rimbaud and Steve Ignorant, which shed light on the making of the records."
The six studio albums are all coming out as two-disc sets, with disc one featuring the remastered (by Alex Gordon at Abbey Road Studios) version of the album and disc two featuring "a mixture of rare live and remastered studio recordings." Best Before 1984 comes with its own 52-page booklet and five fold-out posters.
"Number seven – the one that almost got away," said Penny Rimbaud. "This final Crassical Collection double CD re-mastered by Alex Gordon and Penny Rimbaud at Abbey Road Studios in 2018 contains the original album plus a further album’s worth of related material; good, bad and indifferent. Half the band want it out, while the other half wanted out, but hey, here it is in all its glory."
It all comes out October 2 via One Little Independent Records (pre-order).
The remastered versions of the first five studio albums are streaming now, as are a previously unreleased version of "Sheep Farming In The Falklands" from Best Before 1984, the two versions of the title track to Ten Notes On A Summer's Day, and a demo of "G's Song" from The Feeding of the Five Thousand. Listen to all of that below.
Since 2019, Crass have also been rolling out the Normal Never Was series featuring remixes of songs from their classic 1978 debut album The Feeding of the 5000. It benefits Refuge, an organization that helps protect women and children against domestic violence. We recently posted Steve Aoki's remix of "Banned From the Roxy," which is part of the third installment of the project and comes backed by Japanese artist Mikado Koko's remix of "Reality Asylum." Physical copies come out October 16 (pre-order).
"Different genre, different world, but common ground," Penny said to Rolling Stone about Steve Aoki's remix. "Steve’s contribution to the remix project defies the divide and rule notions of the governing classes and brings us together in a vibrant scream for liberation."
Steve Aoki added, "Remixing the legendary band Crass was a big honor for me, and when they told me the proceeds from the remix would all be donated to a Refuge to help women in need my answer was an immediate yes. There’s a lot of people and problems that need our help and attention in this world, and I only hope that the money raised by this remix project helps to unfuck some of it."
Penny said to Vive le Rock that Mikado Koko "is a ground-breaking Japanese artist and musician stretching the boundaries of feminism and the avant-garde. No wonder, then, that she was drawn to remixing 'Reality Asylum' and thereby proving the universality of the liberationist cause."
Normal Never Was I & II feature remixes by rLr, Glasser, Johnny Dynell, and Charles Webber, and you can hear those below too.
