Description

On June 9th Crass Records, alongside One Little Independent Records, will reissue their iconic three volume compilation series ‘Bullshit Detector’ on 12” vinyl, available in both classic black and limited-edition grey. 

‘Bullshit Detector’ was the name of a series of compilation LPs put together by the anarcho-punk band Crass and released on their own label. Three editions were released between 1980 and 1984, consisting of demo tapes, rough recordings and artwork that had been sent to the band. The sound quality of the ‘Bullshit Detector’ series was mixed and often basic, or even poor, as Crass would master the tapes directly to record without any additional production or enhancement. For Crass, the expectation of a polished performance was missing the point.  

Sleeve notes from Bullshit Detector Volume 3 read; “Don’t expect music when the melody is anger, when the message sings defiance, three chords are frustration when the words are from the heart.”  

The title ‘Bullshit Detector’ was derived as a reference to the Clash song ‘Garageland’ from their first album, a song covered by Chumbawamba guitarist Boffo on the second volume.  

The series is notable for marking the first appearance on vinyl of Napalm Death (on the third volume). The “POWER” sleeve with marker pen art was designed by Haggis, AKA David Hargreaves lead singer of Youthanasia PX.  

Further evidence of the compilation’s legacy can be found in a fourth, unofficial ‘Bullshit Detector’, this time an international compilation, released by the Swiss independent anarcho-punk record label Resistance Productions in 1994. There have also been records released in a similar style and with similar sentiment such as the ‘Bullsheep Detector’ compilation of Welsh punk bands released in 2012.  

After punk had already been co-opted, re-packaged and sold back to us, ‘Bullshit Detector’ Volumes 1-3 were, and still are, seen by many to capture the purest ethos of punk culture, an event that inspired hundreds to take to their bedrooms and garages and join the DIY revolution. Crass believed in the power of community and that their movement was for everybody, these compilations are an admittedly harsh but important part of that story; when Crass gave punk back to the people.  

Penny Rimbaud expands; “Back in the day, the late seventies and early eighties, when Crass ruled the waves, or is that ‘waved the rules’, hundreds if not thousands of inspired individuals and groups set about ‘doing it their way’, setting the new rule that there were no rules. Ears ever to the ground, Crass got to hear about these ‘new pretenders’ and they liked what they heard. Sending out a call to arms, they began to receive cassettes by the bag-load; good, bad, sad and sensational, conclusively proving, despite Crass’ own ‘Punk is Dead’ mantra, that punk was very much alive.  

I have always felt that ‘Bullshit Detector’ was the most honest statement ever made on the true nature of punk as it really was and still can be. Not the ruination of pop pretensions, but very real statements of how it could and should be; a better world for all of us, rather than a crippling strangulation for all but an elitist few. Yup, we did it our way and, in truth, that’s the only way it CAN be done. Here’s to ‘More Bullshit’.” 

Tracklist 

Vol 1  

1. Andy T – Jazz on a Summers Day 
2. Counter Attack – Don’t Wanna Fight For You 
3. The Alternative – Change It 
4. Clockwork Criminals – We Are You 
5. Reputations in Jeopardy – Girls Love Popstars 
6. Crass – Do They Owe Us a Living? (Drums and vocals only) 
7. Amebix – University Challenged 
8. The Pranx – 2 Years 2 Late 
9. The Sinyx – Mark of the Beast 
10. Frenzy Battalion – Thalidomide 
11. Icon – Cancer 
12. The Speakers – Why 
13. A.P.F. Brigade – Anarchist Attack 
14. Fuck The C.I.A. – Right or Wrong 
15. Caine Mutiny and the Kallisti Apples of Nonsense – Morning Star 
16. The Sucks – Three 
17. Porno Squad – Khaki Doesn’t Go with My Eyes 
18. S.P.G. Murders – Soldiers 
19. The Eratics – National Service 
20. Red Alert – Who Needs Society? 
21. The Snipers – War Song 
22. Armchair Power – Power 
23. Disrupters – Napalm 
24. Andy T. – Nagasaki Mon Amour 
25. Action Frogs – Drumming Up Hope (Ferret Skank) 

Vol 2  

1. Waiting For Bardot – Voice of U.K. 
2. Omega Tribe – Nature Wonder 
3. The Suspects – Random Relations 
4. Your Funeral – Think About It 
5. Kronstadt Uprising – Receiver Deceiver 
6. Deformed – Freedom 
7. No Label – Let’s Get It Right 
8. The Rejected – Same Old Songs 
9. Boffo – Garageland 
10. XS – Fuck the System 
11. Polemic Attack – Manipulated Youth 
12. Gardener – A. Gardener’s Song 
13. Toxic – Tradition of Slaughter 
14. 1984 – Break Up 
15. Insert 
16. Toxik Ephex – Police Brutality 
17. Sic – Low 
18. Molitov Cocktail – Ain’t Got a Clue 
19. Naked – Mid 1930s (Pre-War Germany
    

1. Capital Punishment – We’ve Realised the Truth Now 
2. Anthrax – All the Wars 
3. Endangered Species – Slaughter of the Innocent (Curiosity Kills) 
4. Pseudo Sadists – War Games 
5. Total Chaos – Psycho Analysis 
6. Dougie – War Without Winners 
7. St. Vitus Dancers – The Survivor 
8. Stegz – Christus Erection 
9. Metro Youth – Brutalised 
10. Normality Complex – Black Market Shadow 
11. Youth in Asia – Power & the Glory 
12. Riot Squad – Security System 
13. Destructors – Agent Orange 
14. The Pits – U.K. in Dreamland 
15. The Bored – Riot Style 
16. Toby Kettle – Theatre Comment 
17. Chumbawamba – Three Years Later 
18. Passion Killers – Start Again 
19. Amerikan Arsenal – Get Off Yr Ass 

Vol 3  

1. Avert Aversion – Oh What a Nice Day 
2. Awake Mankind – Once Upon a Time 
3. A Nul Noise – Hibakusha 
4. Animus – Nuclear Piss 
5. Peroxide – Ministry of Death (M.O.D.) 
6. Untitled – We Are Taught How to Kill 
7. Xtract – (Waiting For The) Genocide 
8. Verbal Assault – Not Yet Ron 
9. Fifth Column – Counterfeit Culture 
10. Potential Victim – People 
11. 7th Plague – Rubber Bullets 
12. Rebel – Genesis to Genocide 
13. Alienated – Living in Fear 
14. Barbed Wire – Weapons of War 
15. Rob Williams – Lies 
16. Reality Control – The War is Over 
17. Youthanasia PX – Power 
18. Sammy Rubette + Safety Match – The Ballad of Maggie the Maggot 
19. Politicide – 51st State 
20. Markus Abused – The Killing Machine
    

1. One Man’s Meat – Your Country Misleads You 
2. Direct Action – Death Without a Thought 
3. Crag – Voice Your Protest 
4. Attrition – In Your Hand 
5. Napalm Death – The Crucifixion of Possessions 
6. The Impalers – Sun, Sun, Sun 
7. Health Hazard – Picture Show 
8. Phil Hedgehog – Radio Times 
9. Malice – Faceless 
10. Michael Kingzett Taylor – Paranoia 
11. Brainwashed Pupils – The Demonstration 
12. No Defences – Work to Consume 
13. A.N.E.E.B. – Berlin Wall 
14. Carnage – Carnage 
15. Warning – Beasts of Fiction 
16. State of Shock – Excess Youth 
17. Neale Harmer – Hard Nut 
18. Dead to the World – Action Man 
19. Dandruff – Life in a Whiskey Bottle 
20. Richard III – Will You Care? 
21. Funky Rayguns – The Hare and the Tortoise