Soundtrack of an Adolescence

Fuck everything you think you know about punk or hardcore music. The Bullshit Detector compilations released on the Crass record label consistently challenged all the mythos of punk as a musical genre. In fact, their credo was that punk wasn't a genre of music but more of an outlet for political ideas, social views, etc. The music was secondary to the idea that was being conveyed; it was merely a conduit. As a result, the music that was being passed as "punk" on their label wasn't necessarily constrained to the usual format that most punk bands were expected to follow, once the music started to become popular in Britain.

People have said demeaning things about these albums due to some of the poor recording quality on a few of the tracks. Going back and listening to these albums 20 years later is like a cornucopia of sound. Punk was once a spark of creativity and rebellion that those who were not a part of it at the time might not understand. The Bullshit Detector comps capture that sense quite brilliantly; the spirit of change has never been quite brighter.

This is the third album that was released under the working title. The first two albums put out in the series can be found at Planting the Seeds of Revolution. The series was intended to be a type of zine on vinyl so that people could get a sense of what was happening around them in the musical fold. There was no profit made from the release of the album, other than to pay for the expense of releasing it and to use any additional funds to release even more albums by other bands.

Here are the liner notes.







In loving memory of Philip Ray Iselt.