First impression: the disc arrives packaged in a spartan black digipak with a hand-numbered pink sticker. Inside is a single pink chicken feather. I don’t get the symbolism, but I find it endearing in that John Waters/Pink Flamingos kind of way. The music itself is decidedly more advanced than their previous effort, with BADmachine benefiting from Hate Dept.’s Seibold taking on the role of producer. Casey LeBleu’s spasmodic style and vocals have been polished noticeably, catapulting Carcrash into an entirely new arena loaded with smooth, focused synths, aggressive industrial influence and samples from movies as diverse as The Neverending Story and Falling Down. And did I mention more 80s-style synth hooks than a chicken (flamingo) has got feathers? Topped off with excellent remixes by Hate Dept., Think Tank, Americlone and Information Society’s Paul Robb, BADmachine is a versatile and likeable release with a “something for everyone” appeal.
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