V.A. - The Last Nightingale (1984, EP)

A various artists EP produced by avant-everything Chris Cutler's Recommended Records in support of the miners' strikes of the 80's in the UK, and most notable for containing two original tracks combining the mighty forces of Robert Wyatt and part of the Henry Cow combo (along with a reprisal of the latter's Bittern Storm and two readings of Adrian Mitchell's poetry, which are not so likely to stick with you; all of it fronted by Ralph Steadman's bleak cover art and sprinkled with Peter Blegvad doodles). 

Other considerations aside, that might seem like slim musical pickings at first; but those two sharp shards of sonic and political unrest have yet to be reinstated and given their proper place in either contributors' towering catalogues (how did they not feature in the second disc of Wyatt's Different Every Time, anthologizing his collaborative work, is quite puzzling) while, their obscurity notwithstanding, they stand head and shoulders with the finer things in both of them. 

All in all, it's a most effective antidote for when you get cynical about musicians trying to save the world through good intentions and bad songs, and a perfect example of the Rock in Opposition ethos: activism in art should be the opposite of artistic compromise.