Recorded in 1982 on an ancient Tascam cassette machine in Crass’ rehearsal studio at Dial House, ‘Christ Alive’ documents the ofttimes gruelling process behind the making of a song. Given the exacting nature of Crass’ finished works, it’s illuminating to hear them battling out results which eventually gave them the structure to ‘Christ the Album’, which by any reckoning has to be seen as their finest hour.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Christ, shit, sorry, it’s Crass.’

In late 2020, suffering from the isolating effects of Covid 19, Penny Rimbaud and Charles Webber got together at Allen Road Studios to ‘muck about’ with the old rehearsal tapes, editing them down to a digestible 12” LP scale. Having achieved this arduous task, they then consulted the oracle and, for no greater reason than he was readily available, came up with the idea of adding Beethoven to the mix. The BBC had that week offered a free download of stems for the first five and a half minutes of the 5th Symphony. It was a synchronicity which wasn’t to be missed.

From then on it was an uphill climb holding Ludwig back from completely smothering what in comparison now appeared to be somewhat modest offerings from Crass. But with the determination of Sisyphus, the brute was somehow tamed and some kind of order was made of the turmoil. Call it Crasshoven if you like, but this is a noble attempt to blend together two highly motivated but historically divorced forms of music to make sense in a world which seems progressively to make no sense at all.