Car Crash Set - No Accident

Pioneering New Zealand electronic pop band Car Crash Set have almost disappeared without a trace. Which is strange because Car Crash Set’s 1983 debut 12-inch single ‘Two Songs’, housing ‘Outsider’ and ‘Fall From Grace’ on the flip, is one of the finest EPs ever released. From the moment the insistent drum machine rhythm of ‘Outsider’ hits the speakers it’s obvious we’re listening to something special. The sequencer then provides a powerful, infectious melody that pulses and clicks like Kraftwerk on krack, before singer Nigel Russell finally implores, “Well I’m feeling so nervous and I don’t want to show, just how much I really need you so don’t let me go.” More new wave than new romantic, both songs reveal a fondness for the drama of love, with Russell’s mournful lyrics and voice evoking Joy Division’s Ian Curtis and New Order’s Bernard Sumner.

No Accident was a mild triumph for Car Crash Set. Lushly housed in a piece of whimsical modern art by Roger Guise, its eight songs represent 80’s electronica filtered through the discerning eyes and ears of three funky white guys and bass player Ryan Monga. Included on the album was subsequent single ‘Breakdown’, a combustive piece of dance music, driven by Monga’s bass, energetic beats and some very Art Of Noise use of vocal cut-ups in the chorus. To contradict this statement, album opener ‘Justice’ is for many a local replica of New Order’s watershed moment, ‘Blue Monday’. The opening few beats from the drum machine could be mistaken for ‘Blue Monday’, and the bass is equally evocative, but the song quickly morphs into its own entity, taking on the character of ‘Outsider’ but with an even greater sense of immediacy. No Accident is a well-produced album that makes up in energy what it lacks in originality. The band’s label, Reaction Records, boasted that No Accident was “modern dance floor electro-pop for hard times,” concluding its gushing endorsement by describing it as "a Porsche among Peugeots." I’ll let you decide.

Ripped to MP3 @ 320kbps

Car Crash Set; No Accident

A1.  Justice

A2.  Those Days

A3.  Breakdown

A4.  Heart Of Stone

B1.  Scarred

B2.  No Accident

B3.  Sax Appeal

B4.  Your Eyes