Crystal Castles
Self-titled
Last Gang Records

You may know Crystal Castles by their packed live shows, which blend rave, old school videogame sound effects, and a disco backbeat. Crystal Castles’ self titled 2008 release, the duo’s first on Last Gang Records, captures the essence of He-Man and Donkey Kong Jr. throwing fireballs at each other in Bowser Castle. Mixing Mario-esque musical samples and a microphone, Crystal Castles displays the talent of Toronto team Ethan Fawn and Alice Glass. Glass’ vocals draw from a diverse number of styles including punk, hip-hop, and noise, while Fawn’s keyboard sounds like it has an arcade machine chip inside it. Named after the fortress in the sky in which She-Ra, The Princess of Power dwells, Crystal Castles conjures a world of 8-bit videogames, eighties synth-pop, and sword-wielding cartoon characters with muscular figures wearing only their underwear. The only problem I have with the lyrics is that they are largely unintelligible, and the only resemblance to a theme is hinted in each song’s title. Still, the vocals remain beautiful, and the album packs an abstract intensity only matched by the combo of He-Man and She-Ra themselves in a tag team battle against the Mario Brothers and Donkey Kong. – Jonathan Mendick, Mannerist Zine

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Category: music   Tags: art