New Year’s Eve in Brooklyn with Crystal Castles

As the ball dropped in Times Square across the river in Manhattan, the first of two sets by the electronic trash duo of Ethan Kath and Alice Glass had yet to start. With doors opening at 9pm, most assumed that Crystal Castles would hit the stage at 11 and conclude the set to bring in the new year. As we entered around 10pm word quickly spread that CC would not be taking the stage until midnight. CC’s second set was scheduled for a 2am start. Ethan was also scheduled to DJ down the street in between sets, but supposedly never made it to that one.

Much like their Webster Hall show we attended in October, CC played a short but violent set.  Ethan got behind his Korg MS-2000B analog synth/Alesis ADAT HD24 setup, and current live drummer live drummer Michael Bell, member of Lymbyc Systym, climbed behind his kit just a few minutes after midnight.  Alice, dressed in all black, followed a few minutes later (but it took almost 5 minutes to get her microphone to work). She paced the stage while a tech scrambled to get things started.

The sound and mix of this show compared to the Webster Hall show was noticeably better. Glass’ vocals could be heard over the pounding bass and Atari sound effects in songs like “Crimewave” and “Air War.” The focus of the set is directly on Glass, even though Kath is responsible for everything other than the vocals.

Glass’ sporadic stage dives and writhing brought the crowd to a frenzy.  As Kath pushed his pads to play the twisted bass beat with “The Legend of Zelda”-like sound effects swirling in between, Glass crawled to the back of the stage into the fetal position before diving backwards to her back, screaming the lyrics to the track “xxzxcuzx Me.” A sea of hands reached out for a piece of her as she screamed her ode to robotic love with the lines, “I’m programmed to rust, AIDS robot is clad in iron bolts/Robot grunts have bled each other/They all wanna play with my placenta.”

Even with a short set, having Crystal Castles bring in the New Year was a great way to end 2008, one of the most troubling years of worldwide entropy.  With wars all over the sands of its earth and global financial markets collapsing, the elite continue to rape and pillage the middle class and poor through the giant loopholes of capitalism they have created. All of it contributes to the decay of society and continued disintegration of what was once a viable economic system. Kath and Glass brought down the walls of stability and order with their electronic version of musical choas, eradicating what was left of 2008.

http://www.myspace.com/crystalcastles

Spend New Year’s Eve with Crystal Castles!

Bring in 2009 with Ethan Kath and Alice Glass, better known as Crystal Castles, at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The Hall will be hosting our favorite electro-thrash Canadians on New Year’s Eve this year and is without a doubt one of the best venues in the NY area to see a show.  The Modest Mouse secret show and Deerhunter show earlier this month were easily the best shows of the year. If this show is anything like their Webster Hall performance, it will be a night to remember.

Their self-titled debut album released earlier this year is sure to be in many of the Top 10 lists that will begin to pop up over the next few weeks.

Alice gave a boot and smashed my camera into a few pieces at that show, but all that mattered was that the memory card survived.  Check out our pics from that show here. This is sure to be another great one on New Year’s Eve in Brooklyn.

Get your tickets here before it sells out.

CRYSTAL CASTLES – Courtship Dating (official video)
by Differentrecordings

http://www.myspace.com/crystalcastles

Light Hope and the Princess of Power

Crystal Castles got its start by remixing better known bands, such as Bloc Party and Death From Above 1979. Earlier this year, they released their first full-length album. But first, what’s up with that name? Due to an uncommon reliance on video game samples, you might think the band got its name from the popular Atari game with the same name. That’s actually not the case. Crystal Castles is named after the secret refuge of She-ra, from the popular 80s cartoon, and the following is my personal interpretation of the connection:

Vocalist Alice Glass plays the role of Adora in this two-piece electronic music outfit from Toronto. Her voice, usually heard in distorted fashion, is her Sword of Protection, transforming her into She-ra, Princess of Power, and preparing her for battle. What does that make Ethan Kath, the multi-instrumentalist wizard behind the deafening bass and Atari samples? No, he’s not He-man, She-ra’s twin brother. Instead, he assumes the role of Light Hope, a magical entity composed entirely of light. He is the protector of the Crystal Castle and serves as mentor to She-ra.

Ethan Kath is a light of hope, indeed, especially in an electronic music scene where the putting the word “fuck” in your band’s name seems like the best way to get noticed these days (see Holy Fuck and Fuck Buttons). Mr. Kath needs no such gimmick, as he has created 50-minutes of pure magic in his self-titled debut album. Within the album’s 16 tracks, there is a song that speaks to every emotion. Whether you’re enraged (“Alice Practice”), blissful (“Good Times”), frustrated (“Xxzxcuzx Me”), or reminiscent (“1991″), the palette of sentiments is full. Mr. Kath’s beats are oddly original but aren’t composed of original sounds, especially with his heavy use of sampling. The band’s producer has confirmed that Kath uses a modified keyboard that was found broken in the garbage with an Atari 5200 sound chip. The result is a twisted soundscape, supplemented by heavy, repetitive bass, and backed by the distorted pleadings and screams of Glass.

There’s not a moment on the album that feels slow or tedious, or a song that can be classified as filler. No wonder why Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) asked them to open up for a leg of his North American tour. From the original backbeat of the band’s first single, Crimewave, to the extremely chill electronic tinkerings of Magic Spells, a completely instrumental track, I was unable to find an ounce of fat. I can’t say the same for recent albums by others in the genre, including both electronic “fuck” bands, or even LCD Soundsystem’s instant classic, Sound of Silver. There are no songs here as impressive as “All My Friends” or “Someone Great,” but it just might be a better album. I haven’t decided yet. – Mark

RECORD REVIEW
Artist: Crystal Castles
Album: Crystal Castles
Release Date: March 18, 2008
Record Label: Last Gang Records