Crystal Castles' music uses unusual instrumentation such as placing an Atari 5200 sound chip inside a keyboard in order to produce a sound that has been described as having "ferocious, asphyxiating sheets of warped two-dimensional Gameboy glitches and bruising drum bombast pierce [the] skull with sheer shrill force, burrowing deep into the brain like a fever". Indie music review website, Pitchfork, gave a positive review of Crystal Castles' remix of "Leni" by GoodBooks, and described the style as "pitch-shifted vocal snippets [that] ricochet like pinballs around Crystal Castles' patented 8-bit synths".
Crystal Castles, named after the Crystal Castle from the She-Ra franchise, formed in December 2003 as a project by Ethan Kath (aka Ethan Deth of Toronto-based metal band Kill Cheerleader/Cheerleader 666). In April 2005, Alice Glass recorded vocals for five original instrumentals by Kath. The band's first single was recorded "accidentally": a microphone test by Glass was released into the public domain through MySpace as "Alice Practice" in September 2005. Glass was not aware that it had been used until record companies heard the song and contacted the duo to offer them record deals.
This has led to some confusion after the band's statements were misquoted in an article as saying that the band itself formed by accident:
"We’re not meant to be a band. We were merely messing about with sounds and we put the results on the internet for some friends to download. Somehow a few labels heard the songs and wanted to release them. Crystal Castles is an accident. ‘Alice Practice’ is Alice practicing. She didn’t know I was recording."
--Crystal Castles in an interview with Kieron Gillen
September 2006
However, Crystal Castles have clarified this statement:
"The band was not an accident. 'Alice Practice' was, but a journalist has made that into the band being an accident. We started with a purpose...It's not like we fell on a keyboard and these songs just happened."
--Crystal Castles in Loud and Quiet
Since the release of "Alice Practice", the duo have announced plans to release their first full-length album on Last Gang Records in March, 2008.
Preorder the album HERE (click HERE)Crystal Castles have toured Europe and the USA numerous times in the last 2 years, including a U.S. tour with Australian, electronic group, The Presets in February 2007. The band also played at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in England, August 2007 and were set to play the CMJ Festival October 2007.They have supported Metric on certain dates throughout their North American tour in September and October and also headlined Vice Magazine's UK tour in November 2007 called Unitaur, which also featured These New Puritans and The Teenagers.
Crystal Castles were also featured in the Channel 4 British Drama Skins (Series 2 Episode 3) performing as themselves playing "Alice Practice".
Their debut eponymous LP was leaked onto filesharing websites on the 4th of March 2008.
Preorder the album HERE (click HERE)
So LAdies and Gentlemen, There you have it. Thats Alot of info on the Group Crystal Castles. Personally Ive only been hip to this Group 3 days now. After Searching for Some new clothes on Mishka's Myspace page and Hearing the new single "crimewave" I was Blown Away!!
but that is not all people. Not only have I been blessed to come across another dope (nonhiphop) group. Ive also learned some CRAZY INFO! about one of my favorite producers Timbaland!!
ALL I CAN SAY is WATCH ALL THE VIDEOS BELOW and Pay SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE LAST VIDEO!!!!
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