Ever since Crystal Castles electrocuted the scene with a unique set of EPs that circulated between 2006-2007, their position was predicated by the instant sales of their niche 7" singles. Their eponymous albums in 2008 and 2010 cemented their positions as the King and Queen of experimental electronic music and proved that their first album was not just a glitch in the sytem. Either this or their unique blend of electro- clash with noise, chiptune, glitch, low-fi... has carved a notch in the system for this glitch to be appreciated as a form of music that is not bound to the barricaded mouths of music aficionados and elitist cherry pickers. It is there for the dump-truck downloaders who delete as fast as fast as they listen, although in many cases it lingers on like an empty trojan. Their first album has many eargasms to offer, but the one that stands out the most is the track called Courtship Dating.
This track sparked a lot of debate of whether or not Timbaland stole samples from Courtship Dating and used it as the background music for the 50 Cent Ayo Technology song. This was then flipped back on Crystal Castles as they had become notorious for their illegal use of Creative Commons-licensed chiptune music in their early, non-album works posted on MySpace. The reality of this specific similarity is more likely due to the fact that Timbaland and Crystal Castles both used the same sample CD, something available for purchase to use in any way without attribution, as has been hypothesized by the Timbaland blog The Thomas Crown Chronicles, which specifically cites 8 Bit Stylez by Ueberschall.
On the 24th of May 2010 waiting ears finally got to enjoy the long expected release of Crystal Castle's 2nd album. Initially I didn't know what to make of the album. A lot of my expectations were based on the Doe Deer single that I had heard from the 12" Record Store Day single that I picked up. The single promised a push to a more punk based sound that seemed to have left many of their other defining aspects to the wind. Thankfully the single was only part of a very diverse and eclectic return to form. It also offered many surprises in its more mellow tracks that still dripped with their atypical style, but were a lot more refined at the same time. Empathy is a prime example of this.
This offering not only gives a sense of the bands development over the 2 years of non-stop touring that followed their 2008 album release, but also stands as an indicator of the potential that they still have to fulfill. Some interesting trivia regarding their 2nd Album is that the album was produced by Ethan Kath in various places, including a church in Iceland, a self-built cabin in northern Ontario, an abandoned convenience store garage in Detroit, Michigan, and two songs recorded in the London studio of Paul "Phones" Epworth. Ethan's travelling production style is almost palpable in the album. As one song breaks from one to another we find ourselves joining in on this strange and eccentric electronic journey that proves that Crystal Castle's game is far from over.
Over the last couple of weeks XFM have been pumping out Crystal Castle's cover of Platinum Blonde's "Not in Love" featuring the vocals of Robert Smith (The Cure) on the label Fiction Records, which was planned for release on the first week of December. A recent Twitter feed from Crystal Castles provided a free link to a Sane Smith Rmx of this track @ http://www.mediafire.com/?afipps1gptdmq85. Both the Robert Smith and this Sane Smith Rmx version are really interesting to listen to and and both deserve a place in the realm of She-Ra and her fortress in the sky.
No comments:
Post a Comment