The Art Box is a six-CD box set by English avant-rock group Art Bears. It contains all Art Bears album and single releases, plus new material, including live and unreleased Art Bears tracks, and unreleased remixes and reworkings of Art Bears material by other musicians. The box set also contains a book of photographs, artwork, articles, interviews and commentary on the CD tracks, the work process, the band and their tour of Europe in 1979. The Art Bears material was recorded between 1978 and 1980, while the work by other musicians was recorded between 1998 and 2003. The box set was released in 2004 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the band's formation. A double-CD entitled Art Bears Revisited containing Discs four and five of the box set was released later in 2004. Discs one, two and three are remastered versions (by Bob Drake) of the first three Art Bears albums, Hopes and Fears (1978), Winter Songs (1979) and The World as It Is Today (1981). Discs four and five, entitled Art Bears Revisited, contain remixed and reworked Art Bears pieces by various musicians, plus two Art Bears singles and an unreleased Art Bears track. Disc six contains more remixed and reworked Art Bears pieces by various musicians, including a 1984 cover of "The Song of Investment Capital Overseas" by Duck and Cover, plus five live Art Bears tracks, four of which were never officially released before.

Reception

Dave Lynch at AllMusic described Art Bears' music as "an adventurous mix of avant rock experimentalism, smatterings of noise and dissonance, British folk flavors, medieval imagery, and leftist, anti-corporate politics". He said that The Art Box "is a comprehensive document of a band that represented what the best rock music should be: utterly uncompromising". Dominique Leone wrote in Pitchfork Media that Art Bears made music "almost as ahead of the curve today as it did twenty years ago", and said that they deserve the "deluxe reissue treatment" of a 6-CD box set. In a review at BBC Music, Peter Marsh wrote that Art Bears "recorded some of the most carefully crafted (and indeed timeless) music you're ever likely to hear". He added that while he felt that many of the remixes "seem unnecessary at best", he liked the live tracks where Art Bears perform songs "never meant to be performed". Marsh particularly liked Fred Frith's guitar solo on "Coda to Man and Boy".

Art Bears personnel

Disc 1: Hopes and Fears

Contains all the tracks from the original release of the first Art Bears album, Hopes and Fears (1978)

Track list

Additional personnel

Recording information

Disc 2: Winter Songs

Contains all the tracks from the original release of the second Art Bears album, Winter Songs (1979)

Track list

All tracks composed by Fred Frith and Chris Cutler.

Recording information

Disc 3: The World as It Is Today

Contains all the tracks from the original release of the third Art Bears album, The World as It Is Today (1981)

Track list

All tracks composed by Fred Frith and Chris Cutler.

Recording information

Disc 4: Art Bears Revisited disc 1

Contains remixed and reworked Art Bears pieces by various musicians, plus two Art Bears singles (tracks 17–18)

Track list

Additional personnel

Recording information

Disc 5: Art Bears Revisited disc 2

Contains remixed and reworked Art Bears pieces by various musicians, plus an unfinished Art Bears piece, completed for the box set (track 18)

Track list

Additional personnel

Recording information

Disc 6: Free Box CD

Contains remixed and reworked Art Bears pieces by various musicians, plus five live Art Bears pieces (tracks 4–7,11)

Track list

Additional personnel

Recording information

Art Bears Revisited

Discs 4 and 5 above were also released in 2004 on a double-CD entitled Art Bears Revisited.