When Boston's hardcore punk scene was peaking in the
early 1980s, 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 band's early period, in particular the self-produced, seven-song
cassette they released in 1982, but all of it is worth hearing.

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