Crystal Castles : Crystal Castles
 

These guys are so awesome, seeing them this sunday =)

i like them, seeing them in May as well

this is great ear candy. from what i have heard of the album i think it shows potential, but is no masterpiece by any means.

edit - of course i cant get the raw sound from the song "alice practice" out of my head. highlights = air war, alice practice, magic spells

Crimewave is my personal favourite.

I don't like the album because when I asked the HMV store clerk what song I was listening to in their speakers, he pointed at Crystal Castles. I bought the CD. The song was not a Crystal Castles song.

The only song I still listen to is Magic Spells.

Untrust Us and Alice Practice are my favorite tracks from them.


I rated excellent because I love these guys and their atari soundclips. Blast from the past every time I listen.

It think the album is kind of uneven but it has a lot of good songs on it. With a little editing and a little re-sequencing it could've been a five star album for me.

Very good, i rate this band. Seen them live and they were very engaging. The album isnt perfect, theres a couple of ropey songs and the tracklist could be better, but overall the pros outweigh the cons

I really liked this album and listened to it a lot when it first came out. I appreciate the intensity and the vocals are great, catchy melodies. I saw them live, a really memorable show since Alice, the singer, really gets into it. Now I occasionally throw this album on but there are just a couple songs I listen to, it seems that this style got old really fast even though it's pretty quirky.

When I first listened to it I was like "What the hell kind of music is this?!?!?!?". But then the second time I was really digging it. I love the sampling from Dead Womb by DFA 1979 on the first track.

Serves you right for going to HMV i guess....



I think they're very good
however, the album is not perfect.

I've been looking for other bands that have a similar SNES sounding
feel to them. Ratatat do to some extent but its not really the same.

You should check out the Receptors website: 8-BIT OPERATORS - KRAFTWERK TRIBUTE on ASTRALWERKS OUT NOW!!! [ReceptorsMusic.com] 8-bit music / gameboy chiptunes / nintendo bitpop / atari space-punk / c64 electro-funk!

These people mostly make their music with circuit-bent Gameboys, which I think is pretty neat. If you dig Crystal Castles you might like it. They have a bunch of free mp3 of their music on the website, from what I've listened to I think I like "So Long and Thanks for All the Chips" the best.

This stuff is pretty good it reminds me of Add N to (X). So Long and Thanks for
All the Chips is a really good track.

very good but not quite excellent.
they're soooo close though great album.

I love this band but I feel dirty listening to them because you can't play their music outdoors without attracting a gaggle of hipsters. I guess that means I'm overly concerned with the bands' image. Either way, I would feel uncomfortable attending a live show, even though I'd go anyway.

Pretty good stuff, I would but their album. Although I'm sort of iffy about seeing these sort of bands live. I'm not sure that would work out.

I really really dig this album. There's a lot of great tracks, "Knights" being my favorite. I'll be seeing them in August as part of Montreal's Osheaga festival.

Anyone hear their new record, also self titled?

Best Album I've heard in a long time. (II) is the highlight of 2010 music for me so far, there's some discussion going on in the Electronic music section too.

Highlights of (I) for me would have to be Untrust Us, Alice Practise, Crimewave, Courtship Dating, Loving And Caring, Black Panther.

I've opted for Excellent; amazing album by such a lively band.

Not as good as their other self-titled or "Thrash Thrash Thrash" but still a damn interesting album.

Really love Crystal Castles, the guys such a talented producer. He is so creative with the ways he uses Alice's voice as well! Voted Excellent!

honestly I loved every part of this album, I agree with everyone that by no means is it the best thing ever, but I have to say it is about exactly on par with their other releases, no loss or gain really I look at their work as just a collective rather than individual albums, which is a luxery I don't get with most artists but after hearing both self-titled albums I have to say this is the most polarizing band ever, you either REALLY love em or REALLY hate em.

took me a while to warm up to em but after hearing the slower stuff (celestica) and the many catchy songs (pap smear) along with the more abrasive stuff-that you can tell is where alice gets her kicks (Alice Practice)-I warmed up to them more.

so all in all I love their work and I hope they get all the respect and success they deserve (which they have in canada and the UK after alice's little stunt at glastonbury 2008)

Well, they're pretty popular amoung the Pitchfork set but Crystal Castles are hardly radio friendly.......

well I can see pap smear and celestica being on the radio really easily, pap smear especially that song is just something to jam to. Alice Practice though...yea I agree, you gotta be into that type of music, gladly I am

Really awesome band, totally agree that they are either love or hate though. For a good while I was obsessed with Courtship Dating from I, Baptism and Empathy are my faves from II

They along with MSTRKRFT are a big reason why I am proud of my hometown Toronto's music scene.. but it is awesome in so many ways

I really wish I could hijack KISS FM and play a Crystal Castles song. (Prolly "Courtship Dating" cuz thats the Crystal Castles song I have the biggest boner for.) Wonder what would happen.

I love Empathy and Untrust Us.

I did like them when they first started out but not sure about the latest album!
I do like the track with Robert Smith ;-)
G

Pitchfork loves them but tell me what I'm missing. The album is gratuitously avant garde and 8 of the 14 songs are barely fit for listening. There are 3 or 4 songs that hold their own because of their persistent dance rhythms.

Their use of a keyboard modified with an Atari 5200 sound chip is just a gimmick and aside from that distinction, the music is a confusing pastiche of some fairly shop worn musical ideas. There more than a few bands out there doing this sort of thing a lot better than Crystal Castles.