Crystal Castles biography
Crystal Castles are an experimental electronic band formed in 2004 in Toronto Ontario consisting of producer Ethan Kath and lyricist and vocalist Alice Glass. Crystal Castles are known for their chaotic live shows and their lo-fi melancholic homemade productions. The duo released many limited vinyl EPs between 2006 and 2007, and two eponymous albums in 2008 and 2010 to widespread critical acclaim. Their debut album was included in NME's "Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade" list at #39.
History
Ethan Kath met Alice Glass in Toronto when she was 15. He thought he had found an "undiscovered poet" after hearing her sing in her punk band Fetus Fatale. Kath asked her to record vocals over tracks he had been working on since 2003. After writing lyrics for 5 tracks, she went to a studio to record them, where an engineer secretly recorded her soundcheck. Kath discovered the secret soundcheck recording, named it "Alice Practice," and uploaded it online under the band name Crystal Castles, a lyric from a song in the cartoon She-Ra which featured the lyric "The fate of the world is safe in Crystal Castles."
In 2005 the songs "Magic Spells", "Untrust Us", and "Alice Practice" grew popular online, and he began receiving offers from record labels. This news was especially shocking to Glass, having lost touch with Kath since the recording and up to that point unaware "Alice Practice" even existed. The song became the band's first official release in 2006 on a limited vinyl which was released by London's Merok Records.
Several limited edition 7" vinyl singles followed in 2006 and 2007 on various independent labels, including two on London's Trouble Records. In 2008, Lies Records collected most of the vinyl singles and released them on CD for the first time (also released as a double album on 12" vinyl), along with many previously unreleased tracks and 3 songs recorded just for the collection. This eponymous debut album was included in NME's "Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade" list at number 39.
The band's second album, also self-titled (a.k.a. Crystal Castles (II)), was released on May 24, 2010. In April 2010, an early mix of the album leaked, prompting the label to release earlier than expected (original release date was June 2010).
The third single taken from the album, "Not in Love", featuring Robert Smith from The Cure, is currently the band's highest charting single to date. Crystal Castles headlined the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour 2011 in the United Kingdom while singer Alice Glass suffered from a broken ankle.
Third album
As of March 2012, Crystal Castles are in Warsaw recording their third studio album. It is to be released during 2012 on Fiction Records.
Musical style
Crystal Castles musical style has been described as "ferocious, asphyxiating sheets of warped two-dimensional Gameboy glitches and bruising drum bombast that pierces your skull with their sheer shrill force, burrowing deep into the brain like a fever." To listen to Crystal Castles, according to the BBC, "is to be cast adrift in a vortex of deafening pain without a safety net. You get the feeling you could do anything in the world, but that 'anything' would ultimately mean nothing. Crystal Castles marks a nuanced emotional territory that dance music never covered before."
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