Don't Mention It – Crash

I picked this up as a download on Bandcamp towards the end of the pandemic and I’m listening to it for the very first time this evening as I type. As a band that nearly no-one has ever heard of, the album has a very retro 80’s feel which was what probably stopped me when I was sampling one of the tracks before I downloaded it. There are definitely some bleary eyed popsters who’ve woken up from a lot of drugs and decided to record some music together, but apart.
“Don’t Mention It” hail from Surry, England; the band are Martin West - Synths, Bass, Guitars, Vocoder, Programming, Mark Duggan - Vocals, Keyboards, Synths, Guitars, Stephen Shillito - Drum Programming & FX, Lucy & Holly Duggan - Vocals & Voices, and featuring Steve Whitmore - Additional Guitars. Recorded November 2020 - September 2021; New York / Herne Bay / Catford it’s the culmination of a year of remote working from their home studios.
‘Crash’ following hot on the heels of their debut album ‘Neon Highway’ (only 36 years too late, but who’s counting?) was released in 2021. With new ideas being swapped back and forth over the twelve months, the album’s sound channels their formative musical influences of the 1980s with a modern twist. It’s as if their DeLorean once again malfunctioned, this time parking them conveniently outside Trevor Horn’s studio circa 1982 signalling a move forward into the bigger, brighter and (possibly) brasher sounds of that decade.