Calling it, this album will be in my top 2 for the whole year. Crystal Castles are following up their self titled debut with a self titled sophomore attempt entitled Crystal Castles (II). It is unmistakably the same band of Ethan Kath's unrelenting glitch and drums dance soundtrack to Alice Glass's wildly distorted, emotional meltdown singing.
The album is asphyxiating in its complexity and newness. It is an all out assault on what should be considered music, an attempt to genre bend not before seen, and a foray into some entirely new aural landscapes. This album is screwed-up, overwhelming, and combative, and will make you wonder how screwed-up you must be for liking it (that is unless you hate it). The band has matured beyond purely atari-noise dance rock with emotion. They are really experimenting with composition and infusing mood into beats that could otherwise be the chassis for some abhorrent top 40s pop song.
Vietnam maintains the feel of the bands previous work but sounds as if they got production help from OK Computer era Radiohead and Daft Punk all in one go. Alice's voice oscillates from being modulated to a little boy's to her natural deep alto. Celestica probably gives us the best glimpse of Alice's real voice. This song, which could be the definitive track for the nonexistent genre of 'Twee Shoegaze-Dance House', is chilly and frenetic piece of writing. Year of Silence brings us a fantastic musical composition to accompany remastered vocals from Sigur Ros's Jonsi. My last highlight is for the song Doe Deer which most embodies the rawness and energy of Crystal Castles live. Just overhearing the song, you would probably find it discordant noise. But there is a real melody in the cacophony and against some natural instinct to run away from such sounds, I really love this song.
Crystal Castles -Crystal Castles (II) (.torrent)