Crystal Castles... anarchic, obtuse, and brilliant

This is arguably the new punk. In the age of X Factor and the robotic auto-tune, the age of blank, monotonous euro-disco, Crystal Castles don't just swim against the tide, they rage against it. They're willfully difficult and confrontational, and their sound is fresh and vital and sodden with pure cool. 

Live at the Roundhouse on Friday 15th October and with bold directness, their set opened with a moody, thundering drum solo by current side-kick Christopher Chartrand - the effect was electrifying (why don't more acts do this simple trick?). Through an impressive set lapped up by a knowing audience, the pace never dropped for a moment. Performed live, their melodic, digitised snapshots and half-sketches (in no recognisable way are these 'songs'), become funky, fierce technopunk. On stage there are live drums, synths (sonic "architect-in-chief" - Elliot Kath), and what can only be described as melodic and a-melodic, re-processed screaming for vocals (Alice Glass). This is underground and counter-culture in the way it used to be - the literal, living antonym of Ms Gaga and Mr Cruiz. Free of persona, free of market engineering.

And yet, it's leavened with a dance-pop sensibility. On record, the makeshift and liberal use of sampled sounds is contemporary and liberated, anti-snobbish even. They're most famous for using sampled sounds taken from the naive, lo-fi, 8-bit electronics of old Atari games, but they're equally likely to use the slick, compressed, 21st century electro synths or hi-fi drum samples more usually found on a Radio 1 chart hit - so this is also punk in it's disregard for genre-norms and cavalier "we'll do whatever we damn well like" attitude. 

The most interesting thing about Crystal Castles is the absence of any personal image. They play in a club-by, low light. Glass's lyrics are purposefully incomprehensible. The band do not speak to the audience or personalise the artistic vision by explaining it. Artwork and promo shots deliberately obscure their faces. Even song titles are mysterious. This stubborn, enforced distance between performer and audience leaves the audience with no choice but to focus on the music, the pure sound and the experience. More subtly, there's a counter-intuitive intimacy; we're aware of the discreetly shrouded emotion but cannot know it... like watching a stranger crying on a bus - we empathise directly with the feeling behind it but can never know what caused it. And finally, it's presumably a deliberate artistic statement against the fame-worship of our modern culture.

To date they've put out two albums and, true to form, they're both called simply Crystal Castles, forcing us to label them (I) and (II) so we know which is which. Produced pirmarily by lead band member Ethan Kath, the tracks span a kaleidoscope from harsh, noisy techno, through to altered filter ambient electronica.  At their most user-friendly, such as on the early singles "Crimewave", and "Vanished", they're catchy indie-pop, remix ready and surfing the electroclash wave. More stirringly, recordings such the album's second track "Alice Practice" sound like a robot being dismembered and then crushed. The album seems to oscillate around between head nodding disco-tronica ("Courtship Dating", "1991"), and ear-assaulting, electrical gagdet mutilation (viz. "Xxzxcuzx" - all the insane silicon energy of a video games parlour, later "Love and Caring"). In another nod to punk, the 18 tracks are largely short and sweet - often barely 2mins.

The second album invites a number of guests - Iceland's fantastical melodicists Sigur Ros, Swedish chanteuse Stina Nordenstam, hip electro-beats producer Jacknife Lee, legendary indie producer Paul Epworth and likeminded collaborator Alex Bonenfant. Each of these appears to have been filtered through a Crystal Castles magic black box - Nordenstam's vocals for example, are equally obscured as Glass', but retain somehow her ethereal sweetness.

(II) opens with distorted electronica "Fainting Spells" - like a spear thrust in the ground, daring the listener to proceed further. Those that do find "Celestica" sounding like a backtracked Kylie with it's euro-disco burst of a chorus, and "Doe Deer"'s raging, punk stomp which echoes perhaps MC5. "Baptism" is probably what near constitutes a hit single in this context - co-produced by Jacknife Lee it's bigtime, bright-lights, Ibiza-style house with a cool, vibing verse and a wall-of-synth-glory of a chorus. Elsewhere Sigur Ros, Nordenstam and Bonenfant add shimmering, strange vocals and melodies through the middle section of the album.

The unassuming highlight of the album is the futuristic industrial funk of "Birds", reminiscent for this listener of late period Bowie - say, the Tin Machine phase, while the album closer "I Am Made of Chalk" throws it all together in some kind of next millenium proto-punk dream.

Those with a sweet tooth could download the singles, while those looking for an edge could go straight for the rest.

Links:

Xxzxcuzx me - http://youtu.be/_uJ_gdEdMp8 ... this is much like the live experience.
Baptism (Optimus Prime mix) - http://youtu.be/ZNeRBB6kdGE ... they're remix friendly, big techno.
Celestica - http://youtu.be/JITI0FskSG0 ... and alt.radio friendly too,,.