Strange what time can do to one’s listening tastes. Like Crass and most of the other English anarcho-punk bands of the late ‘70s/early ‘80s (except, I must point out, Rudimentary Peni, who maintain an almost religious respect from me to this day) I HATED this band with a passion. Their songs were the musical equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard or strangling a cat and resulted in many a fantasy of jamming ice picks into my ears. Some of the boys in the ‘hood swore by these guys, but I preferred bashing my head into a concrete wall to having to sit through their brand of noise. Twenty years on, however, I find a couple of Crass records in my collection and myself actually digging this reissue. Kinda unnerving. Next thing I know, I’m gonna find myself rocking out to Conflict or something.
–jimmy (One Little Indian)