When Boston's hardcore punk scene was peaking in the early '80s, the Proletariat was one of the few bands that could boast a truly unique sound. They've been described as a sort of cross between
Wire (for their arid, minimal sound) and
Gang of Four (for their politics), but while that description is fairly helpful, it doesn't quite do justice to the bracing energy of the group's best work. Songs like "Options," "Splendid Wars," and "Torn Curtain" show the band at its best: tight, unadorned guitar-bass-drums arrangements that march in disciplined quick time under Richard Brown's shouted sentence fragments (sample lyric: "After the rise/A whole new outlook/Increased exposure/A whole new view"). This two-disc set compiles 45 tracks, everything the band ever recorded, in approximately chronological order. The best material is from the Proletariat's early period, in particular the self-produced, seven-song cassette the band released in 1982, but all of it is worth hearing. ~ Rick Anderson