Crystal Castles
Crystal Castles is a Canadian electronic experimental band formed in 2004 in Toronto consisting of producer Ethan Kath and vocalist Alice Glass. The duo is known for their chaotic live shows and lo-fi melancholic homemade productions. They released many limited vinyl EPs between 2006 and 2007.
In 2006, their first single/EP “Alice Practice” was released on vinyl. The release was limited to only 300 copies. “Alice Practice” would later be included on their debut album, Crystal Castles, released in 2008. Other singles from the album include “Crimewave”, “Air War”, “Courtship Dating” and “Vanished”. The album received highly positive reviews and was listed on NME’s “Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade” list at No. 39.
In 2010, they announced their second album, titled (II), after they released their first studio EP, Celestica/Doe Deer. The album was their first release to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, and includes their first worldwide charting single, “Not In Love” featuring Robert Smith of The Cure. The album has received general acclaim and was placed on many 2010 top critics lists.
Their third album, (III) was released on November 12, 2012. Three singles have been released: “Plague”, “Wrath of God” and “Affection.”
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Pitchfork Best 2012 on Crystal Castles
2 days ago#49 Alice Glass and Ethan Kath's noisy goth-pop/electro-punk sound is so specific it can feel like their three untitled albums are part of a single, slowly-deepening series...full article here
Spinner Best of 2012 on Crystal Castles
2 months ago#34 Canada’s most enigmatic electronic act may refuse to name their albums, but their sound certainly hasn’t remained locked in a similar stasis...full article here
Treble Best of 2012 on Crystal Castles
4 months ago#48 Much has been made about how “bleak” Crystal Castles’ third album is, but darkness and hopelessness aren’t necessarily new things for the duo to explore...full article here
TheOwlMag on Crystal Castles
4 months agoCrystal Castles (III) [Casablanca]
Like Peter Gabriel before them, Crystal Castles have not titled their third straight album. Obviously the comparisons stop there. Although, they may be the closest thing EDM has to a blend of artsiness, vitality, and anxiety. Just as the goth-rave petulance of II was born out of I‘s Atari-core innocence, III subverts its predecessor’s structure and discovers maturity in the process.
The duo continue to draw on everything from krautrock and industrial to trance and modern R&B. Ethan Kath paints the white noise black, and the usually feral Alice Glass delves so deep into the album’s professed theme of oppression that some of her vocals sound like they were recorded in solitary confinement. “Plague,” “Kerosene,” and “Sad Eyes” are rousing and disturbing all at once. “Wrath of God,” “Affection,” and “Pale Flesh” merge slinkiness with sorrow. Initially, all one thinks is, “why so downtrodden?” and flashes back to other masters of nightmarish music who lost their edge in a haze of self-importance. But III is not about promoting personalities. CC re-introduces us to a society where even hope is used as a scare tactic, and dares us to party down at the sight of it.
more at theowlmag.comNME Recommended Albums on Crystal Castles
6 months agoCrystal Castles – ‘(III)’ scored 9 / 10 In 2006, after toiling for some years in a dire rock’n’roll band called Kill Cheerleader, Ethan Kath swapped his guitar for some keyboards, recruited an 18-year-old named Alice Glass from a Toronto noise band called Fetus Fatale, and went electro. Their early singles, ‘Alice Practice’ and ‘Courtship Dating’, were club music of sorts. But while dance music traditionally speaks of good times and euphoric abandon, Crystal Castles made it into something drained, damaged and nihilistic. Oh, and popular. What began as a bedroom project spread its tendrils across ballrooms and festival main stages, with Alice often carried away kicking and screaming on a sea of arms. Playing venues of this size demands an artistic rethink: four-track demos will not...more at nme.com
Guardian UK's New Band Of The Day on Crystal Castles
6 months agoPaul Lester hearts these darlings of the electronic underground, whose 'songs' sound like a load of Gameboys going off all at once in your brain Hometown: Toronto, Canada. The lineup: Ethan Fawn (multi-instrumentalist), Alice Glass (vocals). The background: This is more like it. This is the best new band since the last one we really (new) raved about, which would be, ooh, MGMT three weeks ago. This is like having the inside of your head syringed clean after yesterday's faux-soul rot. We like this one a lot because - call us old-fashioned - on one song, Crimewave, they sound like an android Ian Curtis intoning blankly over Kraftwerk at their most synthetic and on another, Alice Practice, like rioting Pac-Men in an Atari computer factory as the Blair Witch shrieks in the distance. Clearly Kraftwerk at their least synthetic is a contradiction in terms and obviously computer factory workers tend not to riot (neither do Pac-Men), but you know what we mean. Naming themselves either after an early-80s Atari arcade game based on, funnily enough, Pac-Man or the Princess of Power's fortress in the sky from Mattel's He-Man/She-Ra toy franchise (whichever, these kids like kids' stuff), Crystal Castles' digital violence and analogue vandalism is half way between Warp at their most extreme and Alec Empire's Digital Hardcore, er, empire. With over a million...more at guardian.co.uk
Pitchfork Best New Tracks on Crystal Castles
7 months agoCrystal Castles: "Wrath of God"
Crystal Castles are in an enviable position with their new single "Wrath of God"-- all they really have to do is be themselves. After all, since their second self-titled LP in 2010 , how many acts have found ways of smuggling goth, rave, synthesized pop, electro and...
more at pitchfork.comBuzz Bands LA on Crystal Castles
7 months agoOh, it's just another massive Saturday: ► In support of their forthcoming record "III" (out Nov 3. Fiction Records), Crystal Castles headline the Hollywood Palladium with strong supporting bands HEALTH and Kontravoid. ► The Echoplex gets rocked by the Soft Pack , Crocodiles and Heavy Hawaii. ► The Jealous Sound , Weatherbox and Cardboard Lamb all team up at the Satellite. ► Dan Deacon , the brainy and wacky electronic maestro who just released the album "America" back in more here
Quit Mumbling on Crystal Castles
7 months agoOfficial video directed by Video Marsh. more here
Quit Mumbling on Crystal Castles
8 months agoOfficial video directed by Video Marsh. more at elbo.ws
Pitchfork Best Albums on Crystal Castles
9 months agoAlbum "Crystal Castles" scored 8.5
After all of the awful shit Crystal Castles did in the wake of their success, a whole lot of people hoped their new album would be terrible. Sorry, haters: 2010's Crystal Castles improves on their deb...
more at pitchfork.comcovertcuriosity on Crystal Castles
over 2 years agoThe HARD summer tour rolled through Austin at Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheater last night, part of a 12-date tour featuring Crystal Castles, Rusko, Sinden, and Destructo. more at blogspot.com
covertcuriosity on Crystal Castles
over 2 years agoCrystal Castles. more at blogspot.com
covertcuriosity on Crystal Castles
over 2 years agoWelcome back from the holiday. more at blogspot.com