Crash is the highly obscure 2021 sophomore album by the independent British electronic trio Don't Mention It, self-released via their digital platforms. Hailing from the quiet town of Banstead in Surrey, bandmates Martin, Mark, and Stephen built the project around a humorous yet highly dedicated ethos: creating music that is unapologetically "36 years too late." Rather than modernising their sound for contemporary streaming charts, the group utilizes Crash as a total love letter to the peak era of 1980s synth-pop, new wave, and underground electropop. The resulting 11-track collection is entirely self-produced, capturing a remarkably authentic, retro-futuristic atmosphere that sounds like a lost cassette tape found in an abandoned 1985 arcade.
The record moves with an admirable sonic consistency, relying heavily on vintage analog synthesizers, crisp drum machine programming, and atmospheric production choices. Moving away from the heavier punk sounds of our previous explorations, Crash balances danceable, nocturnal basslines with a distinctly British, deadpan vocal delivery. The group leans heavily into cinematic, late-night driving moods across key singles like "The Crash" and "Excite Me," while scattering playful instrumental flourishes and 1950s B-movie vocal samples across the back half of the record. Ultimately, Crash is a hidden gem of the modern DIY synthwave community, proving that the sonic palette of the 1980s continues to thrive in the hands of dedicated independent enthusiasts.
Crash by Don't Mention It is a delightfully pure, uncompromising exercise in synth-pop time travel. In an era where mainstream pop frequently copies 1980s aesthetics using glossy, modern software plugins, this Banstead trio chooses a far more authentic, beautifully unpolished path. The album immediately transports the listener into a world of neon horizons, dark clubs, and early digital sequencers. By leaning completely into their self-proclaimed anachronistic identity, the band bypasses modern electronic conventions entirely. The record feels incredibly refreshing precisely because it treats 1980s new wave not as a cheap aesthetic gimmick, but as a living, breathing musical language.
The album's greatest strength lies in its exceptional grasp of driving electronic rhythms and analog textures. From the pulsating opening bars of the title track, "The Crash," the band demonstrates a masterful control over retro soundscapes. The synthesizers are warm, fat, and slightly unstable, perfectly mimicking the hardware quirks of a bygone era. Meanwhile, tracks like "Excite Me (Midnight Mix)" and "Neon Highway" anchor themselves on top of relentless, rhythmic drum patterns that instantly conjure imagery of late-night drives through rain-slicked city streets. It is a highly cinematic listening experience, built on layered synth pads that feel beautifully melancholic yet energized.
What elevates Crash above standard, instrumental synthwave exercises is the band's inclusion of highly distinct vocal arrangements and left-field conceptual ideas. The vocal delivery throughout the album favors a detached, coolly understated British tone that perfectly matches the bleak, electronic atmosphere. Rather than chasing explosive high notes, the vocals act as another textural layer woven directly into the synthesizers. The album also takes a wonderfully strange, experimental turn toward its conclusion. The final track, "FNNK," throws a curveball at the listener by pairing a grooving, syncopated rhythm with crackling audio samples lifted from the 1959 science fiction film Teenagers From Outer Space, injecting a dose of playful pulp energy into the record.
Ultimately, Crash stands as an excellent, highly rewarding discovery for anyone willing to dig deep into the modern independent electronic underground. It is an album made purely out of a genuine love for musical history, free from the pressures of commercial expectations or mainstream conformity. Don't Mention It have successfully crafted a record that is highly nostalgic without feeling lazy, utilizing old-school tools to tell their own quiet, independent story. For synth-pop purists, new wave fanatics, or anyone looking for the ultimate soundtrack to a late-night drive, this hidden treasure from the Surrey suburbs is well worth a spin.
Ripped to MP3
1. The Crash
2. Five Minutes of Fame
3. Excite Me (Midnight Mix)
4. Boa Bap
5. (I'm Not) Saying Nothing
6. Red Sky
7. Neon Highway
8. Chikky
9. Insane
10. Lady of the Night
11. FNNK
Pandemic, SCAMdemic! There wouldn't be a human race if there was EVER a pandemic, already!
ReplyDeleteVaccines are highly profitable, even deadly, useful no, no vaccine in the last 300 years has ever saved anyone. Virii are a scapegoat for big pharma to keep on drug pushing, the real causes of illness is pollution, poisons, created by big industry. Remember stupid sheeple don't think, cancer, autism, cardiac arrests, etc are all a byproduct of vaccines! Aluminium in vaccines causes Alzheimers, like fluoride, and skin creams, whichever way, big pharma gets extremely rich and you die!
JB, who asked you? unless I'm mistaken, we all die anyway so why should I give a fuck about pharmaceutical....but while you're here, cancer has been killing people for thousands of years, cardiac arrests have been killing people for thousands of years, Alzheimers was never know because as a species we didn't live long enough, and finally the worst thing is autism would have been known as a devil child or a sign from the gods that they were angry with you...the child would have been killed or sacrificed to appease, as would have any deformity the child was born with because people didn't know how to care for them.
DeleteNow, let’s talk about Pandemics...ohh where should we start??
Let’s start with the old favourite...PLAGUE. Plague is caused by the flea-borne bacteria Yersinia pestis that is responsible of at least three human plague pandemics, the plague of Justinian, the Black Death and the third plague. The plague of Justinian occurred in Egypt and spread throughout the Eastern Roman Empire and its neighbours. Between 541 and 543, the plague killed an estimated 100 million people in the Roman Empire and especially in its capital, Constantinople. The highly developed structure of the Roman Empire facilitated the spread of the Justinian plague along its trade and military routes. In contrast, the plague did not affect the less organized barbarian societies outside of Rome’s borders.
The second plague pandemic, the Black Death, originated in East Asia and swept across Central Asia into Europe through the land and sea trade routes of the medieval Silk Road. The second plague pandemic lasted in Europe until the early of the 19th century and killed 200 million people. The Black Death (1347–1351) killed as many as 30% of the European population and was followed by successive waves such as the plague of Milan (1630), the great plague of London (1665–1666) and the plague of Marseille (1720–1722). Between 2010 and 2015, the number of plague cases was estimated at 3,248 with 584 fatalities worldwide, most of them occurring in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar and Peru.
Cholera is an acute often fatal disease of the gastrointestinal tract caused by Vibrio cholerae. The bacteria colonize the small intestine and produce the cholera toxin which is responsible for a rapid and massive loss of body fluids leading to dehydration, hypovolemic shock and death. There have been Seven known Cholera Pandemics...I'm not going to list them
DeleteFinally we could talk for ever regarding Influenza. The time in which influenza virus began to infect humans or cause a pandemic cannot be determined with accuracy but many historians agree that the first influenza pandemic could have likely occurred in 1510. The Russian flu that occurred between 1889 and 1893 was the first well-described pandemic. The virus spread rapidly as it took only 4 months to circumvent the planet. The pandemic virus reappeared every year for 3 years and caused an estimated 1 million deaths worldwide. Twenty five years later, the Spanish flu was caused by an A/H1N1 virus that apparently arose by genetic adaptation of an existing avian influenza virus to a new human host. Before its identification, the virus spread silently around the world and its region of origin could not be determined. The 1918–1919 pandemic spread in at least 3 distinct waves within a 9 month interval. The first wave occurred during spring-summer 1918 and caused high morbidity and low mortality. Both the second and third waves in summer-fall 1918 and winter 1918–1919 caused high mortality. The 1918–1919 influenza pandemic resulted in approximately 500 million infections and 50 million deaths worldwide.
Over the past century, descendants of the 1918 pandemic virus were the cause of almost all seasonal influenza A epidemics worldwide. All influenza A viruses responsible for the 1957, 1968 and 2009 pandemics also derived from the founding 1918 virus by gene reassortments between human, avian and swine influenza viruses.
You're quite obviously a DICK Mr Bennett. Kindly keep your views to yourself in future, do not rattle a cage with a sleeping Tiger, because the door will be open and your ass will be savaged.
Now if you don't mind, Fuck Off!