Song of the Day: Section 25 “Carcrash”
“Carcrash” is a bouncing dance track from Factory Records stalwarts and first wave UK post-punk group, Section 25. Concluding their 1988 LP, Love & Hate, the song finds the band in rude form, having fully merged the electronic production elements they had always hinted at with their punk bona fides in an exhilarating fusion of styles that helped to predict the music to come. Driven by drums and some propulsive synthesizers, the song manages to genuinely convey the feeling of movement. It is tragic then, that despite how forward looking Love & Hate was, Section 25 ended up going on a 19-year hiatus immediately after recording it, not returning until 2007.
Section 25 were formed in the small seaside town of Blackpool in the NW of England. The group has been a family affair from their earliest days. Initially the band was a duo, consisting of brothers Larry Cassidy (bass, vocals) and Vincent Cassidy (drums). They eventually added Paul Wiggin on guitar before further expanding the group. Working as trio for a number of years, they were signed to (in)famous Manchester label Factory Records where their first album, Always Now, was produced by mad shaman/ genius producer Martin Hannet. The group’ big breakthrough came with their 1984 LP, From the Hip. That album featured an expanded lineup, including the Cassidy brothers’ sister Angela Flowers along with Larry Cassidy‘s wife Jenny Ross both on vocals and keyboards, and a shift in musical direction towards electronic music.
It was this expanded version of the group that re-emerged in 2007, minus Ross, who died in 2004. Larry Cassidy‘s daughter Bethany Cassidy would join the group, filling her late mother’s role. When Larry Cassidy died in 2010, Bethany Cassidy rebooted the group, driving the band into even more of an electro-pop direction. This Bethany Cassidy-led version of the group was previously featured on the site in 2018.
