Track Listing

1. Untrust Us
2. Alice Practice
3. Crimewave - Crystal Castles, Health
4. Magic Spells
5. Xxzxcuzx Me
6. Air War
7. Courtship Dating
8. Good Time
9. 1991
10. Vanished
11. Knights
12. Love and Caring
13. Through the Hosiery
14. Reckless
15. Black Panther
16. Tell Me What to Swallow

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4339 in Music
• Brand: Dig
• Released on: 2008-03-18
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .16 pounds

Amazon.com
Electronic music is constantly ready to evolve, a point Crystal Castles seem determined to prove on their self-titled debut. They come from a heavily retro/electro place in the spectrum, wallowing in bits of debris from the ‘80s: video game bleeps and pixilated sounds found deep in the Casio archive. But it’s all twisted up, prodded past redundancy or homage to a state that feels genuinely innovative. How do they manage this? Part of the answer is in Alice Glass’s vocals, which are endlessly malleable; she can punk-scream her way through blizzards of squeaky noise ("Alice Practice," "Love and Caring") or get cute ("Good Time") without breaking character. But the real secrets to their reinvention, ironically enough, are in old-school details like melody, hooks and unpredictable, fun songwriting. All the boops, bleeps and whirs in the world can’t distract from the catchiness of songs like "Black Panther" and "Air War." Still, it must be said that listening to the record is vaguely unnerving at times; you feel a bit like Pac-Man stuck in his blocky maze. And yeah, some songs stretch invention into irritation (the unlistenable "Xxzxcuzx Me"). On the other hand, it never fails to be interesting and repeated listens smooth out the edges just enough to appreciate the band’s careful shading and confidence. So open your mind, enjoy the rampant creativity, and don’t eat the ghosts until they turn blue. –Matthew Cooke

Customer Reviews

More solid beats than experiments
- House drum patterns throughout
- Ranges from happy electro to punkish glitch to introspective house
- Strong 80's dance pulse
- Very pleasant form of bleep-bloop music w/o much ugly noise
- Like a more human / DIY version of The Knife
- Experimental compared to most indie-pop, but very poppy compared to most noise groups

Excellent.
It's early, but I'm already going to claim this album of the year.

Since purchasing this record, I have not been able to put it down! Know that it is definitely not for everybody... some people won't be able to stand the weird assembly of glitchy atari sounds, but it is done in such a seamless way... and it becomes reminiscent of driving at night to some underground discotheque in Europe.

Ethan and Alice are the duo behind CC, and they do not disappoint. Alice's voice mimics that of "cute little girl tries to scream and sing on garage record (a la. CSS)" but I find her voice to be very appropriate, however it may be interpreted. Sometimes screaming, sometimes lulling... and the same goes for the music. Sometimes overwhelming, often soothing.

A definite buy.

Amazing
I first saw/heard of Crystal Castles when they were opening for Metric in the fall of 2007, and ever since I've been in love. Despite a crowd that was not into them they still managed to rock out and put on a show. I had never seen an opening act as good as Crystal Castles, and I'm not sure I will again. This album is unbelievable, and sort of undefinable. I like to call it Industrial Electronica Nintendo Goth Art Music. You know a band is good when they don't even need coherent sentences or words at all to make a good song, and Crystal Castles pulls this off like pros. If your taste in music leans toward the somewhat abnormal and open to anything way then Crystal Castles is for you.