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| Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles | Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Released March 28th, 2008
Last Gang Records
In a musical age increasingly influenced by informal Internet constructions such as MySpace and blogs, Crystal Castles emerged as beneficiaries of the technological boom. They accidentally recorded their first hit track, the lead singer found out about its usage only after record labels began making offers to sign the band, and waves of hype followed as the duo remixed various other popular indie cuts. But unlike so many other products of overly anxious blogs and e-zines, Crystal Castles followed up their initial success with a more conventional output: physical copies of a full-length album.
Rather than use outlets such as Beatport to pursue an exclusively electronic release or even put forth singles and EPs alone, Alice Glass and Ethan Kath followed in the footsteps of musicians of a more primitive day by signing with a label, recording an LP, and distributing it through vinyl and CDs.
Yet Crystal Castles still exhibit many characteristics of a new band. For example, most of the tracks on the front end of the album surfaced some time ago on the “Alice Practice” 7” and various other releases. This familiarity comes two-fold on the opening track, “Untrust Us.” Fans not only know the cut from previous leaks, but also recognize the vocal samples from a Death From Above 1979 track. The introduction soothes both due to said familiarity and its elegantly swaying singing and calm electronic movements.
Next comes the aforementioned accidental hit, “Alice Practice.” Here the audience’s prior knowledge of the track works in the opposite way – the opening notes bring a rush of ecstasy to the listener. Alice’s piercing shrieks course over Ethan’s deliberate instrumentals to craft an energizing song that invigorates both instantly and lastingly. A similar formula follows on the following “Crimewave.” Once again a familiar cut, in this case a previously released single, with bouncy instrumentation and jagged a cappella work creates a comforting and exciting vibe. The trend all but wraps up with the thrilling “Air War,” a song featuring a slew of infectious blips and vocal stutters.
When Crystal Castles starts incorporating previously unheard material into the album, the atmosphere of the album begins to change. On the brief “1991” a simple beat featuring elementary percussion backs waving synths. Though still catchy and adorable, an infinitely more ominous vibe emerges. It continues later when the duo employs haunting moans to ride equally chilling instrumental waves on the epic “Knights.”
But perhaps the most exciting cut on the release emerges from a familiar instrumental thus far unassociated with Crystal Castles. Timbaland used the instrumentals on “Courtship Dating” for his “Ayo Technology” beat with Justin Timberlake and 50 Cent. Though he accelerated it, any fan of Top 40 music immediately recognizes the similarities as soon as “Courtship Dating” kicks off. Here a bit more variety regarding the course of the instrumentals paired with Alice’s distant, diverse vocal work lends a taste of newness to a brilliant track.
Crystal Castles clearly emerged from the blog era of music. However, as a band they bring infinitely more to the table than a catchy free-for-download single and a handful of banging but musically trite remixes. On their self-titled debut full-length the Canadian duo establish relevance as true musicians and not just a product of the enormous hype machine that is the Internet. |
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Displaying posts 1 - 15 of 22. |
04:13 PM on 03/18/08 | Great album. Can't wait to buy it. | | |
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09:41 PM on 03/18/08 | i saw this band open for metric last fall. it was amazing. | | |
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09:25 AM on 03/19/08 | good review, this album is definitely worth a listen | | |
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09:44 AM on 03/19/08 | well said. their live show is amazing. | | |
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10:26 AM on 03/19/08 | great album, but alice practice will never be topped, haha. | | |
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10:30 AM on 03/19/08 | crystal castles is some over-hyped pitchfork bullshit | | |
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11:06 AM on 03/19/08 | I always thought the synth in that timbaland track sounded like a crystal castles beat. weirddd | | |
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11:27 AM on 03/19/08 | The Rational Voice of AP.net I saw these guys (gals) just last week at SXSW. I had never heard of them before and was pretty impressed with their set and the crowd reaction. Not particularly my kind of music but I was entertained nonetheless. | | |
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12:02 PM on 03/19/08 | save the drama for wilmer valderama caught some of their set in some tent last week at sxsw. great group. a little overhyped, but still awesome.
i'm so glad you're here, dona. | | |
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01:05 PM on 03/19/08 | crystal castles is some over-hyped pitchfork bullshit |
I'm so fed up with people hating on Pitchfork mindlessly. No, I don't like the site, but I at least know what's going on with it. If you're gonna lay blame on cats for hyping Crystal Castles, spread hate out to the blogs; that's how they're growing so quickly. Pitchfork is just picking 'em up.
caught some of their set in some tent last week at sxsw. great group. a little overhyped, but still awesome.
i'm so glad you're here, dona. |
And I'm glad you got to see them even though I missed them at all of the SXSW gigs and their Dallas date immediately after. Wait, no I'm not. That's just jealousy. | | |
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02:43 PM on 03/19/08 | save the drama for wilmer valderama I'm so fed up with people hating on Pitchfork mindlessly. No, I don't like the site, but I at least know what's going on with it. If you're gonna lay blame on cats for hyping Crystal Castles, spread hate out to the blogs; that's how they're growing so quickly. Pitchfork is just picking 'em up.
And I'm glad you got to see them even though I missed them at all of the SXSW gigs and their Dallas date immediately after. Wait, no I'm not. That's just jealousy. |
it's alright man. i missed mstrkrfts only gig, and every fucking cool kids set.
i did catch chromeo's set and it was probably the most fun i've had at a show in a while. | | |
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04:28 PM on 03/19/08 | I'm so fed up with people hating on Pitchfork mindlessly. No, I don't like the site, but I at least know what's going on with it. If you're gonna lay blame on cats for hyping Crystal Castles, spread hate out to the blogs; that's how they're growing so quickly. Pitchfork is just picking 'em up.
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pitchfork is a great blog barometer and it has a traffic ranking of 5,000 so it has a lot of influence. i read that site all the time and agree/disagree with it all the time. i have no problem with your review/different opinion, just to be clear. i just think this is trash. | | |
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04:47 PM on 03/19/08 | it's alright man. i missed mstrkrfts only gig, and every fucking cool kids set.
i did catch chromeo's set and it was probably the most fun i've had at a show in a while. |
I didn't catch Mstrkrft either, but I'm seeing 'em with Boys Noize on Saturday so it's all good. I also missed all the Cool Kids sets, but I've seen 'em before so it was nice to watch people I was unfamiliar with. Same story with Chromeo.
Did you ever hit up the FADER Fort?
pitchfork is a great blog barometer and it has a traffic ranking of 5,000 so it has a lot of influence. i read that site all the time and agree/disagree with it all the time. i have no problem with your review/different opinion, just to be clear. i just think this is trash. |
Fair enough. Just so long as you're not an Absolute Punk kid subscribing to the I-hate-Pitchfork-for-no-apparent-reason camp you're entitled to whatever opinion you'd like! | | |
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