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Further news of Crystal Castles’ sophomore album hit the web a couple of days ago and already a bunch of new tracks (apparently from a demo copy of the album) have hit the blogs. You can stream about half the album on Hype Machine, linked from a number of different sources. From listening to the few songs made public it sounds like Crystal Castles has evolved into a more pop friendly macabre-esque villain, ditching their glitch-y circuit bent keyboards for some shiny new tools to make themselves sound more accessible, but still moderately alienating themselves from the asserted disco audience. In a way it sort of contradicts their image and reported personalities, which portrays them as eccentric trouble makers, slightly psychotic and highly unpredictable. One would have expected Ethan Kath and Alice Glass to become even more messed up and further displaced from the mainstream with their second full-length album, but it sounds like they have done the opposite. ‘Doe Deer’ is the only track showing any obnoxious intent, Glass’ vocals warp and distort in a kind of dirty, heavily compressed lo-fi wave. The album’s first official single ‘Celestica’ is very clean, and is definitely a step away from their grimy past. It contains more of a disco vibe, rolling with a smooth keyboard melody and Glass shows off her luscious singing voice.

On April 17 (Record Store Day) ‘Doe Deer’ was released as a limited edition 12″ vinyl (500 copies), backed by three tracks the band recorded in 2004 that had previously been unreleased. There was no digital or CD release and as expected it sold out pretty quickly.

The fourteen track album is due out on June 7th in Europe, June 8th in the US via Fiction Records and June 14 in New Zealand via Shock records. It is apparently going to be self-titled, again.

 Crystal Castles- Celestica: MP3

Crystal Castles- Myspace

 

Posted by Nick Fulton under Canada, Ontario
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