Celestica by Crystal Castles
OK, before I get into what I want to say, I did not know there was a music video for this! It’s sort of what you would expect a Crystal Castle video to have — people hanging around Gothic architecture, graveyards, spooky ambiguity. I thought of “Celestica” something resembling outside of a physical form, so it’s weird for me to have a tangible thing for “Celestica,” but cool to have an accompanying visual for a wonderful song!
Anyway, the song that I loved most and had what I wanted a lot from Crystal Castles in the self-titled debut was “Alice Practice.” It’s an 8-bit grind-house/noise-punk. It’s Alice Glass screaming in my ear on top of video game white noise. It’s awesome.
My friends liked other songs, like their remix of HEALTH’s “Crimewave,” “Magic Spells” (Ha ha. Any of my friends reading this? Sorry. Inside joke!) or probably “Courtship Dating.” You know, the synth-y stuff. Our tastes lied a little different but we all praised Crystal Castles like the freshest sound around, complaining when people had their remix of “Crimewave” up on MySpace or something, and that’s all they end up knowing from the band.
When my friends and I heard the news of a second album from Crystal Castles coming out, we first tried to imagine what the new songs would sound like. We thought it’d be another collection of 8-bit stuff with Alice Glass showing up being a spooky vocalist or screaming out ears out again. The imagined follow-up from Crystal Castles in our heads was a set of songs quick to burn out as they pulled upon exactly what the blogs ended up simplifying the band into. We had hope still, but the perhaps our expectations were sadly low about how much we would be impressed.
And boom, Crystal Castles released “Celestica” as their first single from the follow-up album.
It was anything but we previously imagined. The sound was hundred times clearer and more crisp than anything before. In came airy wooshes of synthesizers and out went video-game programming. “Celestica” shared a similar family line with dream-pop than, like, whatever 8-bit remix blogs have posted to death. Most importantly, we can actually hear Alice Glass sing. She’s singing, and she sounds so pretty and free.
I returned to “Celestica” last winter and that’s what struck me most. Crystal Castles sounded soothing, an adjective I probably would not have used to describe their music prior. While the squirming video-game synths felt a little claustrophobic, “Celestica” unleashed its electronic beat outward and radiated with strength. Glass’ thin voice carried the gust of synth with even more serene feel.
Certainly, the feeling of serenity of “Celestica” made a great impression and a change of face, but it’s not the only thing holding the single together as a great song. After I let the synths cover me, I then turned to the pounding bass and the house-signature 4/4 beat, churning out crisp and energetic. The drums and thump lies beneath the bed of sparkly synth sounds as a powerful component to keep the track strong on its feet. And it makes a good metronome-like element to keep heads nodding and bodies moving at a natural pace.
“Celestica,” for me, sounds like a wonderful house song working without any sign of fatigue, always sounding fresh as ever (It’s on loop as I write this, and it’s a great loop I can put on for days). Every sound on the song is memorable and put to use efficiently, even the little beeping sound ending the phrase. A bit foreign for the dance floor, but it’s a song that sounds colorful and romantic to soundtrack a moment to let go of any thoughts and insecurities.
A line I always cling on to when I listen to “Celestica” is “do you pray with your eyes closed, naturally?” I don’t know what it is, mostly probably from just the way Alice Glass sings the line. I don’t know what the song is about, but I kind of don’t want to look up the lyrics and find out. I remember feelings about this song more than content, and for Crystal Castles, who has been unfairly labeled as a sound-driven band, being able trigger an unexplainable pleasant feeling through rich sounds was a powerful step forward.
How was your first time listening to the sounds inside Crystal Castles II? Maybe submit a post of your story?
![(My) Story of Crystal Castles
When I was in high school, a good chunk of my music discoveries came from an online sneaker forum. It’s good to get “outside” on the web and read up on what other people from outside of your local communities think* and recommend. In a “Post What You’re Listening to Right Now”-type of thread was where I referred for some bands and musicians I have never heard of. This online realm was where I first read the name “Crystal Castles.”
The guy who shared Crystal Castles seemed pretty mind-blown about the duo when he posted about it. He was insistent that we all check them out. I have this memory of him saying it was a recent duo just starting up, although that could be just my mind playing tricks. What I remember most though is that he mentioned their self-titled debut — the one with the cover of stitched-up photos of the duo slouched — was only a dollar on iTunes. A dollar.
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The banned original cover of Crystal Castles, the band’s self-titled debut
The price was not what struck me to check out the band, which we will get to a little later, but can we just take the time to process the value of Crystal Castles circa early 2008? Crystal Castles is out right now touring the US opening for Depeche Mode. In 2011, they had a heavy-attended, batshit crazy** performance at Coachella and a not-bad sized font on the bill, sharing levels with Brandon Flowers of the Killers and Lauryn Hill.
The duo also has a second-tier slot for a Sunday portion of HARD Summer festival 2013, sharing spots with trap/Harlem Shake-enthusiast Baauer and EDM stars Dillon Francis and Zedd. Previously in 2010, Crystal Castles headlined HARD Summer, sliding in below Major Lazer.
From the cheap price of a dollar, the first self-titled from back in 2008 is what I assume a self-funded small-time project between Alice Glass and Ethan Kath. You can get a sense of the small-scale from the overall production, especially in the sound choice. But that’s sort of the fascination inside the first self-titled: The 8-bit goth-world of Crystal Castles was built from a bedroom, living room, or basement from an outskirt somewhere (presumably). Some person had the idea to do this and their accessibility was not that far off from me in 2008.
Back in 2008. Crystal Castles felt like an idea rather than a band, an incredible idea no less but aspiration for a bigger goal seemed out of the conversation. The collaboration of Crystal Castles sounded spur-of-the-moment*** and casual. The presence of Glass did not seem much of the main concern. But it kept people moving. Check some accolades**** and you may get a glimpse of how viral of an “idea” Crystal Castles turned out to be from just their self-titled.
Alice Practice by Crystal Castles
The track I loved first from the self-titled debut was “Alice Practice.” It’s too difficult to point to what part of the track I loved the most. Was it the corroding 8-bit beat? The gritty, lo-fi production over Alice Glass and her punk screams? One thing, though: I was never exposed to such a messy production work like “Alice Practice” and the dirtiness got me hyped about the band.
“Alice Practice” and “xxzzxcuzx Me” — another favorite of mine — are the messiest it gets close to white noise. The rest rely on a eerie, soul-sapped synth-sound pulling from chiptune*****. But in parts, you hear the ghastly presence of Alice Glass like a ghost in the machine. Check “Untrust Us,” for example. Glass sings, I guess you could say, but words and speech is pulled apart and distorted to be stitched together with the SFX-synths.
The 8-bit sound stuck hard and Crystal Castles got labeled that for a while in its beginning of popularity. Crystal Castles could have been a small-time act stuck in their ways of an old sound. But the follow-up, as we will see, had the duo expanding in role and vision. The band began to complicate the “idea’” of Crystal Castles into an ambiguous yet formed entity. We can get a glimpse of what could be done from the self-titled debut, but what the band would transform into through Crystal Castles II was unexpected as the band’s initial start.
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*the internet is, like, 88% full of useless, insulting opinions, but you’ll find some cool stuff on there sometimes
**I was not there at Coachella 2010; this is based on a retelling of my friend’s experience at the Crystal Castles set
***In reality, the formation of Crystal Castles was kind of actually spur-of-the-moment, in a way. The Wikipedia-version of the origin story/myth goes that Kath thought Glass was an “undiscovered poet” when she sang in her punk band Fetus Fatale, then he asked Glass to record some vocals on some of his unfinished tracks. When Glass went to the studio, the engineer “secretly” (don’t really know what this “secretly” suggests or means, really) recorded the soundcheck. Kath found the soundcheck recordings, liked it, and put it over his production which would later turn into “Alice Practice,” one of the tracks in their self-titled debut.
****The highest accolade that Crystal Castles received, according to Wikipedia, is by the NME. The magazine placed the album number 39 on its list for Top 100 Albums of the Decade. Bravo, Crystal Castles.
*****The supposed source of the 8-bit sound of Ethan Kath is what drew me in to Crystal Castles too. It’s probably a myth, but there has been a rumor of Kath ripping apart video game soundboards of old consoles (or cartridge? Don’t know) to get that sound. Probably not true.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/096b2297455c5a1c2549b93691d29b39/tumblr_mns0s0QdyE1qzfivso1_500.png)
