Anarcho-punk legends Subhumans have announce a bumper vinyl boxset containing six albums, plus special bonus content.
Formed in Wiltshire in 1980, they’re right up there with Crass and Conflict as one of the most influential bands from the UK’s anarcho scene of the ’80s.
Their latest album, 2019’s Crisis Point (reviewed here) showed they’re just as relevant today as they were during the darkest days of Thatcher’s Britain – and just as angry.
Subhumans released a series of live and demo cassette tapes on their own Bluurg label before their now-classic debut album The Day The Country Died emerged in 1983.
Second album From The Cradle To The Grave came hot on its heels the following year (1984), and although the same frenetic pace is in evidence, it marks a significant musical development for the band.
In 1985 Subhumans broke up, citing the usual musical differences, although had managed to release a third album, Worlds Apart.
A final LP, 29:29 Split Vision, was released posthumously in 1986, further demonstrating how far the band had come musically from their initial leanings.
There are two more albums in the Subhumans 80-86 boxset: Time Flies + Rats, also released in 1986, compiles the eight-track Time Flies… But Aeroplanes Crash 12in from 1983 and the four-track EP Rats from 1985.
EP-LP, again released after subhumans had split, collects the first four EPs onto one disc, and there’s a bonus boxset exclusive 10in of Unfinished Business, a collection of loose ends from the ’80’s, originally released on CD in 1998 when the band reformed, long out of print, and available for the first time on vinyl.
The boxset, being issued by their current label Pirates Press Records, also includes a 52-page book-bound 12in x 12in booklet featuring frontman Dick Lucas’s original diary entries from the recording sessions, plus unseen photos and lyric sheets.
Also included is a 12in slipmat featuring the band’s iconic skull logo, and the boxset contains the 12in blood red & black ‘galaxy’ vinyl, the rarest variant, housed in black embossed inner sleeves.
In addition to being packaged as a box set, each record is available for individual purchase in special colours. Check out the options on the Pirates Press website HERE.
