Car Crash Set – Join The Car Crash Set / Expanded Edition (CD Album – Anna Logue Records)
Genre/Influences: Electro-pop, new-wave.
Background/Info: The main aim of Anna Logue Records (Germany) is to recover old 80s electro bands from dust by releasing rare and previously unreleased material from forgotten bands. Car Crash set was originally set up in 1981 featuring David Bulog, Nigel Russell and Trevor Reekie (producer). One of the main characteristics of the band is that they were hailing from New-Zealand. This album was originally released on vinyl format in 2008 by Anna Logue Records and now re-released as an “Expanded Edition” on CD format featuring 7 extra songs. It mainly consists of rare material like compilations, demos, but still previously released 12” & 7” versions.
Content: You directly can recognize the typical 80s touch that will remind you of numerous bands like New Order (one of their main source of inspiration), Stéphane Eicher (Grauzone), Blancmange, OMD, Lavvi Ebbel and Marc almond for some of the vocal parts.
This band brings us back to the magic of old analogue synthesizers and the power of electro-pop and new-wave music. A few cuts are driven by explicit guitar parts like letting us discover another band.
+ + + : The vintage electronics had something really special and unique. Car Crash Set was into the real true spirit of 80s electro-pop & wave formations and will definitely appeal for lovers of New Order, Blancmange and co. The songs are well-crafted while filled with an extra emotional mainly injected by the charisma of their singer.
– – – : Don’t get me wrong, this is a pretty cool work, but the main point that hurts me is that this band really doesn’t have an own sound identity. They were more into emulating some famous bands from that time and a song such as “Justice” is a pretty good example to understand what I mean. Another point is that I’m not that much into the guitar songs, which are more personal-like, but absolutely not convincing.
Conclusion: This album is an interesting documentary and definitely an opportunity to (re)discover a 80s band from the other side of the world, which however composed cool electro-pop.
Best songs: “Dreams”, “Heart Of Stone”, “Those Days”, “Outsider – 12” Version”.
Rate: (7).
Band: www.facebook.com/Car–Crash–Set-1611751669103286
Label: http://annaloguerecords.blogspot.be / www.facebook.com/annaloguerecords
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