Car Crash Set have long been one of those “heard of but not heard” phenomena for my ears.. Referenced here and there over the years, but I’ve certainly never seen the goods in any bins! Given that their 40 year old album,, “No Accident” is a three figure album to buy, maybe that’s a good thing. If you think that’s bad, things only got worse with every reissue! Germany’s Anna Logue Records, who have resuscitated Poeme Electronique for the digital age, had already released a definitive compilation, “Join The Car Crash Set,” on wax twice and the silver disc once already in the current millennium. The LPs will set you back three solid figures and the CD isn’t cheap either!

So it’s welcome new that Anna Logue Records is going for another pressing, this time on both formats, as demand is obviously outstripping supply. This Friday the collection will once more be available, albeit in the modest numbers that are a fact of life in this era of dwindling physical products. So what is this music like anyway?

Car Crash Set: Join The Car Crash Set – GER – CD [2024]

1. Hit And Run 3:20
2. Outsider (12″ Version) 5:58
3. Toys 4:42
4. Heart Of Stone (Demo) 6:58
5. Another Day (Demo) 5:55
6. Heart Of Stone 5:08
7. Dreams 2:42
8. Fall From Grace 7:52
9. Those Days 4:32
10. Imagination (7″ Mix) 3:09
11. Justice 5:07
12. Love Situation (Early Synth Version) 5:20
13. Your Eyes 4:50
14. Lost Tape 4:53
15. Fall From Grace (Demo) 6:23

The mid-tempo “Hit + Run” played like a minimal synth cousin to a song like “Open Your Heart” as a minimal synth creature in full with swooping synths and a drum machine that sounded as if it were going to rattle itself off of the table. On “Outsider,” the subtext of the album became truly manifest. Car Crash Set were aiming for the sound of New Order in their naggingly familiar songs, with “Everything’s Gone Green” laying the groundwork for this one. It had the same drum machine fills stabbing repeatedly as did its forebear.

“Toys” explored elsewhere with a jittery minimal synth vibe graced with a rubbery acid lead and atmospheric synth patches. The energetic sequencers vied with the earnest vocal from Nigel Russell. Then it was back to the music factory for “Heart of Stone [Demo],” which hewed closely to the template that “Age Of Consent” had mapped out. The guitar tone of Trevor Reekle emulated that of Barney’s while Russell’s vocals didn’t seem to care what Sumner had done on “Age Of Consent” and freely plowed its own furrow.

The demo of “Another Day” juxtaposed cheerfully twangy guitar amid the synth string patches and drumbeats and the final studio recording of “Heart of Stone” took a half-step away from the New Order template. Singer Russell’s vocal production also moved further away from sound of Barney’s vocals but his added yelps straight from the Sumner playbook only cemented the end result here as New Order pastiche. Then “Dreams” scurried closer to a minimal synth sound with gloriously dinky drum machines recalling the earliest Men Without Hats material, ca. 1980.

Sooner or later it had to happen. “Fall From Grace” was the re-write of “Temptation” I’d been waiting for. If you’re going to lift, lift from the best! One can almost sing the New Order lyric to the music bed here. “Those Days” eschewed the Manchester band’s vibe for something radically different. A Freestyle track with call backs to the plinky sixteenth note sequenced synths that Arthur Baker initially made his name [okay, and “Confusion”] with. Then it was time for the most obvious track here, and “Justice” bit down hard on “Blue Monday” to make a late addition to my “Blue Monday Ripoffs” list! The relentless drum programming with fills at the end of each bar were de riguer. And Russell added not only more yelps, but also an emphatic grunt just to throw me off a little.

“Love Situation” was something different…yet eerily familiar. No, it didn’t suggest New Order, but what it did suggest very strongly was something that was utterly New Order adjacent! It could have been part of Paul Haig’s “The Warp of Pure Fun” album [which had New Order sitting in and producing some tracks] with Russell coming very close to sound-alike status with his vocal. I can’t’ say I’ve ever heard anyone else with quite the sound of Haig’s delivery…until now!

The compilation was as close as anything I’ve heard to being a New Order record without it actually saying that on the cover. I felt that Cold Cave captured the vibe of New Order on “Cherish The Light Years” but those tracks sounded like the best record I expected after “Power, Corruption, and Lies.” In contrast, “Join The Car Crash Set” challenged me to guess which discreet songs had been studied to inspire half of the material here. What the listener brings to the equation depends on how comfortable one is with magpie syndrome carried to a pretty far degree. I have to say that it was the Haig-like track that impressed me the most. I would think that it would be a harder target to hit that garden variety New Order. I liked it but would I buy it? Given that the material is historically so transient in the marketplace, in the face of a higher demand, maybe I should suggest buying now and deciding how you feel about it afterward? Your mileage may vary.

Car Crash Set: Join The Car Crash Set – GER – YELLOW LP [2024]

1. Hit And Run 3:20
2. Outsider (12″ Version) 5:58
3. Toys 4:42
4. Heart Of Stone (Demo) 6:58
5. Another Day (Demo) 5:55
6. Heart Of Stone 5:08
7. Dreams 2:42
8. Fall From Grace 7:52

Admission to the party is modest since the boutique label is not run with the intent of making a profit. An approach that I’m happy to see spreading in this era of Late Capitalism. Of course the shipping might clobber your wallet, so there’s always the Bandcamp store for lossless DLs. Even so, non EU purchasers may shave the 19% VAT from the prices listed below. More than fair, yes?

• Yellow vinyl [180g] LP + lyric sheet/poster, sticker, postcard – ed. of 317 • €22.00 [EU]/€17.82 [rest of world]
• Digipak CD + sticker + 7 bonus tracks – ed. of 200 • €13.00 [EU]/€10.53 [rest of world]

If you are pining for the scarce and costly music of Car Crash Set, then DJs hit those buttons!

LP + CD

DL

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