- Purchase a product from the Music Store sold by Amazon.co.uk and receive £1 to use on an album download in our MP3 Store. Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
|
Product Description
Review
Few recent indie bands have worked music fans and commentators alike into the sort of love-hate lather that Ontario's gothic rave duo Crystal Castles did in 2008. First, Ethan Kath and Alice Glass conjured up a rare kind of parent- and old critic-baiting pop sound by refracting the most full-on, euphoric and comic elements from trance, rave and electro through the snot-flecked lens of their childhood punk rock. It was a wailing expression of anger and dissolution that saw the duo play both shoddy and totally compelling gigs with such nihilistic abandon you feared for the life of front-lady Glass.
They also came across like surly teenagers. To say they got a bit of a reputation for being contrary prima donnas in some quarters is an understatement. But look beyond all the non-compliant interviews, the god-awful live shows and those nerve-grating 8-bit computer sounds that got them lumped in with the chiptune massive and there was evidence on their debut album that they knew how to craft a pop tune with great emotional heft. Whether from a wall of cacophony fronted by Glass's banshee wail or a dreamy wash of spine-tingling melodies, there was definitely something there.
It's this gauzy tendency that dominates their follow-up, suggesting they've either a) made peace with something or b) it's actually an icy, whacked-out bleakness being expressed, that points to the sort of deeper problems they seem quite capable of being involved with. Still, it's a largely terrific return that retains all of the weirdness and edge of their debut but allows the tunes to win through at the expense of unnecessary glitch and red-raw distortion.
The wonderfully titled Pap Smear–a sign the band haven't exactly warmed to the press–sounds a lot like early Björk. Year of Silence suggests a musical three-way between glam metal-era Marilyn Manson, angular gloomtronica duo The Knife and Lady Gaga, Glass's indecipherable vocal coda reminiscent of Bad Romance. The song most likely to be played in Urban Outfitters is Celestica, a swoonsome, pillow-soft relation of Untrust Us from their debut. Elsewhere, influences of M83, Ellen Allien and whirring Italo-disco all rear their tuneful heads.
Penultimate track Intimate shows they can still brood and kick dust with the sulkiest of punk kids, roaring with the white noise of indignation and screeching wildly. But by going light on oppressive darkness, Crystal Castles have allowed their obvious skill for writing dramatic pop with weird inflections twinkle through, helped along by more than just blazing anger. --Chris Parkin
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully Bad Dreams,
By
This review is from: Crystal Castles (II) (Audio CD)
Looking back over my wayward musings I gave Crystal Castles'
eponymous 2008 debut a brief but favorable review. With their second delivery 'Crystal Castles II' I see no reason to abandon them. Ethan Kath and Alice Glass are back with a collection of fourteen uncompromising but highly accessible compositions. The overall sound of the album is "crunchy". The treatments of Ms Glass' voice conceal more than they reveal; this, despite the often jolly dance-friendly nature of the arrangements, brings a nicely sinister flavour to the proceedings. (The artwork is pretty creepy too!) 'Celestica' has an almost-pretty breathy vocal floating over the insistant beats. Waves of melancholy synth chords flow in and out of the mix helping to sustain an uneasy dreamlike ambience. 'Doe Deer', however, is the stuff of nightmares. Ms Glass screeches like a mad witch with a bad grudge. The inner-violence of the track may be a tad unnerving for the faint-hearted. Uneasy-listening. 'Year Of Silence' is another sombre slice of stripped-down techno. (Miss Kittin came to mind more than once). The thumping rhythm would doubtless go down well in some of the darker corners of contemporary urban clubland. (The kind of place where everyone wears black and never smiles!) 'Suffocation', despite its ponderous title, delivers a glimpse of warmth here and there with its almost-uplifting, anthemic theme. 'Birds' is a particularly interesting confection. The squelchy beats, great crashing grungy chords and demented vocals outline a territory which would have interested the venerable Mr Hitchcock, were he still with us today. Mr Kath has a turn behind the mike for their reworking of Platinum Blonde's 1983 composition 'Not In Love'. It is one of the album's high-points, despite the vocal sounding very much as though it is being performed by a chipmunk. (Listen and believe!!) Final track 'I Am Made Of Chalk' brings the project to an extraordinary close. The ravings of a savage or suffering long-forgotten underwater creature would appear to have been captured on tape and inserted into this deeply disturbing mix. Not the sort of thing to listen to just before bedtime. A willfully weird and totally thrilling listening experience! Highly Recommended.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Atari-chip nu-rave....,
By DOGG "DOGG" (World) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Crystal Castles (II) (Audio CD)
Ethan Kath has been using atari 8-bit sound chips for his synths for a few years now,which creates a unique synth sound, here on the second Crystal Castles album, the canadian duo have created a softened but also improved sound.
The angry screeches and synth squeals have been replaced by symphonic variants, akin to the european house sounds of the last 15 years but fear not, there is still the atari sound chips and the buzzing,frenetic,glacial 'Castles sound. To improve on their remarkable debut album was always going to be difficult but this album is a rich cathedral of sound, with fewer samples and a direction towards a more mature sound. Its difficult to compare anyone to these two in modern alternative music, they fit well into the alternative scene but nobody comes from such an interesting angle ,using '80's computer chips!. The sounds created are anything but limited and in fact the atari chips give the synths a unique sound,tinnier but also somewhat fresher than modern synths,.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awsome,
By
This review is from: Crystal Castles (II) (Audio CD)
This band has a very unique sound, no one is like them (that i know of). This is an excellent follow up to their preivious album, you can tell its crystal castles but this album has a more euphoric dance feel to it but sounds more mature than there previous album. To be honnest i liked the first album but i love this one! Definatly the best album i have listened to this year. if you liked the first Crystal Castles Album this is a must buy!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
