Crystal Castles - 'Crystal Castles' (Last Gang) Released 28/04/08

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On the basis of their reckless and fierce live shows, along with the frantic and almost careless sounds that came out of their ‘Alice Practice’ EP, one wouldn’t deem Crystal Castles to be an album band, and they’d probably be right. The world hasn’t awaited the release of their self-titled debut with too much intent; instead they’ve all been buying tickets for their tour dates, dying to witness Alice Glass losing herself on stage once more. And again, prior to a listen of Crystal Castles’ first record, an expectation on what to expect should already be there – 16 tracks of the same fervent, outrageous spirit that we’ve already been subjected to in their early releases could be a bit much.

However it seems that Ethan Kath, the mind behind the music, has taken this into account and has instead presented us with an album so diverse and thriving in variety that you won’t quite know what’s hit you after your first listen. Of course, the eccentricity is still very much present. Established fan-favourites ‘Alice Practice’ and the melancholic ‘Love And Caring’ all make their way onto the record, un-adjusted from their original versions - they’re best left alone to stay put as the most unbelievably mad listens one could ever come across. Glass is a prominent frontwoman, with “what the fuck is th- oh, it’s the bass” being her most audible vocal-track on the whole record, everything else you hear from her is crammed full of genuine energy that is near-impossible to be re-captured by anybody – and that’s what makes Crystal Castles so exciting.

Ethan Kath still manages to work his magic throughout the record too. Instrumentals ‘Reckless’ and ‘1991’ stay strong without Glass’ spellbinding vocals . The Health remix, ‘Crimewave’, being one of the least danceable tracks on the album, still sounds impressive when surrounded by two of the strongest moments on the record, ‘Alice Practice’ and ‘Magic Spells’. The better moments on the album however are the ones which we haven’t witnessed before. New single ‘Courtship Dating’ samples high pitched screams which stand next to chanted vocals and piercing synths and ‘Black Panther’ stands proud as the perfect penultimate track. High in tempo and energy, it’s at that moment that you realise what Crystal Castles have accomplished and as the acoustic-based beauty of a closer ‘Tell Me What To Swallow’ closes the record, you can come out of the 50 minute listen with a satisfied smile drawn across your face.

With this self-titled debut, they’re removed all the stereotype terms of “gameboy noises” and “over-the-top crazy stuff!” in spectacular fashion. Putting a remix on the record proves that they don’t seem to care about the album structure but nevertheless, they’ve produced one of the most surprising and accessible records of the year so far. It’s an album that could’ve been disliked, dismissed and forgotten about if it weren’t for the perfect placement of every track, ensuring that the listener gets a moment of rest after each extreme, rapid anthem (see ‘XXZXCUZX Me’ for the most obvious example) comes along.

The delightful thing about this album though is that it’s probably been thought about a hell of a lot more than first meets the ear.