Hailing from Ontario, Canada, duo Crystal Castles (conformed by Ethan Kant and Alice Glass) envisioned and en-globed the cultural contemporary status quo in Crystal Castles (2008). The era of a newfound love for the gothic and emo and punk, but also of 8-bit tweaks and simple and catchy electronic ditties, is to be found inside their debut album. The lengthy compilation finds many scattered clusters of songs:

  • Untrust Us uses Death From Above 1979’s Death Womb and turns it into a catchy and repetitive beat. In the same vein, Magic Spells uses distorted radio samples to create an apocalyptic ambient, while Air War (de facto two songs which flow quite asymmetrically into one another) is a psychotic dance song which halfway through turns into a adagio of synths. This is Kant in his element, crafting pessimistic songs with bright electronics.
  • Reminiscent of Kant’s early work are 1991, and Reckless, generic synth-pop, and Knights, a series of catchy but also lamenting movements: Bauhaus-ean in content, but a deliver a’la Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works.
  • Moments where Glass’ contribution to the album really stand out because they give the album (and the duo) a punk dimension: Alice Practice and Love and Caring are neurotic both lyrically and musically, a reimagining of Black Flag’s My War for the Nintendocore era, and xxzxcuzx me features an industrial drum machine, on top of which Kant’s synths and Glass’ vocals intertwine. The quieter moments, Through the Hosiery and Black Panther provide little more than Glass’ vocals (which are used as an additional sample line)

The tone with which the album closes is disorienting. Tell Me What To Swallow is a My Bloody Valentine song stripped of all possible distortion. If anything, the closer leaves very clear that this is an album de facto, but a compilation de jure.

Crystal Castles gathers Black Flag nonsensical lyricism and appends it to 80s synth pop, all in the context of late-2000s Nintendocore and dance-punk.