Crystal Castles
(Last Gang)
This Toronto duo builds decayed synth-pop using mostly 8-bit tones and uncomplicated house rhythms. Crystal Castles' founder Ethan Kath hasn't removed the human element entirely, but vocals are usually filtered or sampled and chopped enough to blend into the electronics.
Some of the least engaging tracks ("xxzxcuzx me" and "Love and Caring" especially) are those where singer Alice Glass gets a more traditional vocal placement out in front of the music. The mic distortion, combined with her punk vocal style, grates against the deceptively fragile instrumentation.
"Courtship Dating" puts Glass' voice to great use with a call-and-response chorus that makes her sound every bit like the urban waif she costumes herself as. Whatever she's singing -- lyrics are nearly indecipherable throughout -- it sounds like an impromptu game of tag in an abandoned building.The songs that play at digital hardcore or industrial abrasiveness can't escape the trilling electronic burbles that Kath achieves through a keyboard rigged with an Atari 5200 game system sound chip. His invention lends every song a sort of glistening delicacy, no matter how many beefy octave bassline foundations he pours.
Crystal Castles comprises mostly previously released singles and an EP, which isn't a complaint. It's nice to have all this stuff in one place, even if the collection skids into monotony in the third act.
However, the band smartly offers a twist ending by closing their debut LP with "Tell Me What to Swallow" -- a guitar-led piece overcast with Glass' reverbed and mostly wordless vocal blending into pastel washes of synthesizer chords.
Reference materials: Ever wish that early OMD and Fad Gadget had been roped into collaborating on a record using only a Roland TB-303 and a broken Frogger console? Neither have we, but strangely enough that's not far from Crystal Castles. And stranger still, it works.
