Album Review: Crystal Castles (II)

For those expecting the new Crystal Castles record to approach or surpass their debut effort, you can stop reading this now. LCD Soundsystem’s astonishing This  Is Happening improved upon Sound of Silver, which appeared on every credible “best of the decade” list. However, that polarizing Crystal Castles’ debut was more complete than the top-heavy Sound of Silver. Those few who called it inconsistent are the same hipsters clamoring over the one trick pony that is Sleigh Bells. The hope was that Ethan Kath and Alice Glass may be capable of delivering another neurosis-inducing tour de force. What we get with the sophomore release is a more than capable follow-up; it just doesn’t approach the summit that the band previously inhabited.

Although there are plenty of stand-outs, I don’t get the point of all the synthetic distortion. It almost sounds like Steve Albini (Nirvana’s In Utero and Failure’s Magnified) produced these fuzzy lo-fi sounding tracks. What happen to the pristine production of “Air Wars” and “Crimewave”? Luckily, that static is limited to just a few songs, including  album opener “Fainting Spells” and the almost inaudible minute and a half long first single “Doe Deer.” The effect is used transitionally in the  Sigur Ros-sampling “Year of Silence.” The foundation of the track has loads of promise but falls a bit short of previous sample-heavy tracks (probably an unfair comparison to the HEALTH remix “Crimewave”).

Although Crystal Castles may have set the bar too high on their previous release, the album is certainly one of the best of 2010. One area in which the band has grown is with the vocal manipulation of Glass’ voice. She actually sings on this record, which makes some of the tracks more accessible than previous releases (see album standout “Pap Smear”). Kath puts Glass’ vocals through various filters on most of the record. The most extreme vocal manipulation is on “Vietnam,” another standout that would have fit seamlessly on the first album. The comparisons to Karin Dreijer Andersson are completely ridiculous, although Glass’ voice transcends gender on “Empathy,” my favorite song on the record. Kath selfishly turns down Glass way down in the mix much too often.

Although Crystal Castles seem content using old formulas, they do explore new ground on tracks like “Birds.” I wonder if Kath broke out his guitar for the first time since his days in a GG Allin cover band. At least he’s not the former guitarist from Poison The Well. The new sound is welcomed, and I hope he continues to experiment with it. The album was previously scheduled for a June 8th North American release. That date was pushed up to April 23 when the album was leaked.

http://www.myspace.com/crystalcastles

Hear Entire New Album By The Knife

The Knife (in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock) have announced that their new record, ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’, is now available buy directly from the Rabid Records store as a download or pre-order a CD copy and receive the download instantly.

The album features songs Olof and Karin wrote for the Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma’s opera based on Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of the Species.’and will be available worldwide on iTunes and Amazon beginning Febuary 1st and the CD will be in stores on March 1st.

You can pre-order the CD or FLAC and stream every track here.

MP3: New Track From The Knife: “Colouring Of Pigeons”

The Knife announced plans to release the studio version of the music they scored for the opera ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’, on the 1st March 2010 in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock.  Olof and Karin wrote the music for the Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma’s opera based on Charles Darwin and his book ‘On the Origin of the Species.’

They have released their first track free for mailing list subscribers and can be  downloaded here: “Colouring Of Pigeons”

Read the full details from their press release including track list below.

Commissioned by Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma to write the music for their opera based on Charles Darwin and his book ‘On the Origin of the Species’, The Knife decided to make this a collaborative process, working with artists Mt. Sims and Planningtorock for the first time, to capture the huge width of the Darwin and evolution theme. They extensively researched Darwin related literature and articles, with Olof attending a field recording workshop in the Amazon to find inspiration and to record sounds.

‘Tomorrow, In A Year’ is a unique musical project. Richard Dawkins’s gene trees have formed the basis of some of the musical composition, artificial sounds have been mixed with field recordings, with the music inspired by everything from the different stages of a bird learning its melody, to a song based on Darwin’s loving letters about his daughter Anne. These are compositions that challenge the conventional conception of opera music.

Pushing the experimental process further still, composer, choreographer, costume designer and set designer worked separately, only coming together 3 and a half months before the first performance of ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’ in Copenhagen on the 2nd September 2009. Described as “shifting the position of operartic art in a single leap”, further performances of ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’ are confirmed to take place in Athens (8-9 Jan), Stockholm (29 Jan-1 Feb), and Munster (5 June), with further dates to be announced.

Olof Dreijer says: “At first it was very difficult as we really didn’t know anything about opera. We’d never been to one. I didn’t even know what the word libretto meant. But after some studying, and just getting used to opera’s essence of pretentious and dramatic gestures, I found that there is a lot to learn and play with. In fact, our ignorance gave us a positive respectless approach to making opera. It took me about a year to become emotionally moved by an opera singer and now I really do. I really like the basic theatrical values of opera and the easy way it brings forward a narrative. We’ve approached this before in The Knife but never in such a clear way.”

Tracklist:
CD 1
01. Intro
02. Epochs
03. Geology
04. Upheaved
05. Minerals
06. Ebb Tide Explorer
07. Variation of Birds
08. Letter to Henslow
09. Schoal Swarm Orchestra

CD 2
01. Annie’s Box
02. Tumult
03. Colouring of Pigeons
04. Seeds
05. Tomorrow in a Year
06. The Height of Summer

Bonus track
07. Annie’s Box (alt. vocal)

Fever Ray @ Webster Hall

This was Karin Dreijer Andersson’s first US show as Fever Ray and what a show it was. Andersson has not stepped on a stage in the States since her last visit to Webster Hall in 2006 with her brother Olof as The Knife. The stage was set with smoke machines, synchronized lamp shades of yellow incandescent light that contrasted the green laser beams bouncing off mirrors on the stage and ceiling. All of this was designed by none other than artist and director Andreas Nilsson, who has directed her spooky-short film videos as well as previous work on the Knife projects. With a much larger live band than expected, the stage was filled with three sampling stations in addition to an large percussion arrangement of tribal drums and Karin’s microphone and guitar setup.

The show opened with “If I Had A Heart” as the droning sample rung with Karin hidden beneath a large Indian headdress that engulfed her entire body. This went along with the primal imagery of Nilsson’s design that also included warpaint and American Indian hand crosses brilliantly juxtaposed by the beams of light, making the smoke look like a moving ocean above our heads.

The perfect sound mix added to what was a flawless show. The deep bass of songs like “Coconut” were heart-pounding. Lights even shined on Karin’s face as her impeccable voice crooned the lyrics to “When I Grow Up” and “Seven.” In addition to songs off of the self-titled record, Fever Ray played two cover songs recorded with Van Rivers and The Subliminal Kid. The tracks are available on a limited vinyl release. “Stranger than Kindness,” originally by Nick Cave and Anita Lane, and “Here Before” by Vashti Bunyan added to s seamless set.

The only awkward moment of the show ironically came when it ended. As Karin and company left the stage the house lights stayed off and the sold out crowd of 1400 clamored for an expected encore. After four minutes of darkness, its almost guaranteed that a band will return to the stage. But Karin Dreijer Andersson is the pinnacle of non-conformity and did not return. The house music slowly began to get louder until the house lights came on, leaving everyone confused but not unfulfilled.

This show was on our calendar for months and was easily the most anticipated of the year. Somehow our expectations were exceeded.  To put it in plain English, it is was one of the best fucking performances I have ever seen in my life.

Setlist:

If I Had A Heart
Triangle Walks
Concrete Walls
Seven
Now’s the Only Time
Dry and Dusty
I’m Not Done
Keep the Streets Empty
Stranger than Kindness
When I Grow Up
Here Before
Coconut

Here’s a sample from the MELT Festival in Germany: