“Crassical Collection” from Seminal Punk Artists CRASS Available Today via One Little Independent

Full Crassical Collection cover art

Crassical Collection Features Collectible Editions of Classic Albums, Including Remastered Audio, Rare Tracks, New Art and Comprehensive Liner Notes

The Crassical Collection, a collection of seminal avant-punk collective CRASS’ legendary albums restored from the original analogue studio tapes, is available today via One Little Independent Records.

The Crassical Collection includes Stationsof the Crass (1979), Feeding of the Five Thousand (The Second Sitting) (1981), Penis Envy (1981), Christ – The Album (1982), Yes Sir, I Will (1983), Ten Notes on a Summer’s Day (1986) and Best Before 1984 (1986). Each of the records have been repackaged and bolstered by rare and unreleased tracks, and stunning new artwork from Gee Vaucher, who has lovingly created what could only be considered a true artifact.

“There are those who believe that things should be left just as they are because any intervention after the event might in some way dilute or even corrupt original intentions,” says CRASS’ Penny Rimbaud. “It was on this basis that some of the band members objected quite strongly to the ‘Crassical Collection’ which, in short, was Gee’s and my own attempts to find new ways of smartening up the act. For many years we’d been updating everything into new formats as they came along, so what was the problem? I’d made concerted efforts to keep up with advances in mastering and playback technology and had applied these many times before, so questions of ‘originality’ appeared to me to be purely academic. What I do know is that the ‘Crassical Collection’ remasters were closer to how CRASSactually sounded than anything we’d released before. Notwithstanding, some of the band made efforts to prevent us from releasing them, at one point even threatening us with legal action. This hampered operations at Southern Studios, where we were then operating, and created severe financial difficulties which was in part the reason that the ‘Crassical Collection’ version of ‘Best Before’ was never released. The first remastering had been finished by 2010, but ready cash had now become a problem and we had to call a halt to it. And so it festered, gathering dust in a North London storage unit like modern day Dead Sea Scrolls.”

The first six albums include two CDs, with the first disc being the main album remastered by Alex Gordon at Abbey Road Studios and the second being a mixture of rare live and remastered studio recordings. Each package also includes a fold-out poster and a high-quality 60-page booklet featuring all lyrics along with extensive liner notes from band members Penny Rimbaud and Steve Ignorant, which shed light on the making of the records.

The Best Before 1984 Crassical Collection is brand-new and has also been remastered and features five fold-out posters and a 52-page booklet. Watch a video for “Sheep Farming 3,” a previously unreleased track available on Best Before 1984 (Crassical Collection), at https://youtu.be/LfWWr477tN4.

In addition to the CRASS releases, Rimbaud’s latest solo record, HOW?, was released in August. HOW? is available at https://oli.lnk.to/How.