Crystal Castles (band)

Ethan met Alice in Toronto when she was 15 years old. He thought that he had finally found an “undisclosed poet” after hearing Alice in her punk band Fetus Fatale. Kat asked her to record vocals on top of her tracks, which he had been working on since 2003. Alice wrote the lyrics for the five songs and went to the studio to record vocals. The engineer secretly recorded her soundcheck before recording, and later Ethan heard his recording. Based on it, Kat makes the track “Alice practice” and puts it on the Internet under the name Crystal Castles. The name originates from a phrase that sounded in the cartoon She-Ra, which said: "In crystal castles, the fate of the world is safe." In 2005, the songs “Magic spells”, “Untrust us” and “Alice practice” became more and more popular on the Internet, and Ethan began to receive offers from record companies. The news was particularly shocking for Glass, who had not previously suspected Alice practice and by that time had ceased to maintain contact with Ethan. This song was the band's first release in 2006 and was released on vinyl on London's Merok Records. The band’s top single was “Not in love”, which also featured in the soundtrack for FIFA 12 , and the single “Celestica” included PES 2011 soundtracks

In 2006 and 2007, limited releases of singles on independent labels were released on vinyl, including two of them on London Trouble Records. In 2008, Lies Records collects these singles and releases them on CD (including released as a double album on 12 'vinyl), along with many previously unreleased tracks and songs that were specially recorded for the collection. The debut album was numbered 39 on the NME 's Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade.

The second album of the group is also of the same name (also known as Crystal Castles (II)), was released on May 24, 2010. In April 2010, the album leaked to the network, which prompted the label to release the album ahead of schedule (the initial release date was June 10, 2010). The third single, “Not in love,” featuring Robert Smith of The Cure , is currently the top single in the band's history. Crystal Castles led the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour 2011 in England, while Alice was injured and had to perform with a broken ankle.

In March 2012, Crystal Castles announced their relocation to Warsaw to begin recording their third album. The first single, "Plague", was released on June 25, and was uploaded to SoundCloud. On September 26, the band released their second single, "Wrath of God." On the same day, they announced that the album would be released on November 5, later the release was postponed to November 12. On October 9, the group published a tracklist on their Facebook page . The album was released on November 7 on iTunes , five days earlier than the estimated release date.

The Crystal Castles style has been described as “the fierce and suffocating two-dimensional layers of Gameboy glitches with pathos drums that leave bruises and pierce the skull with piercing force, burrowing deep into the brain like a fever” ^[1] . According to the BBC , when you listen to Crystal Castles, you “will be left without insurance to the mercy of fate in a whirlpool of deafening pain. You will feel that you can do anything in this world, but this “anything” will mean “nothing”. Crystal Castles reveal emotions that have never been shown before in dance music ” ^[2] .

With the release of the second album, their music made a "shift towards beauty and clarity" ^[3] , trying to "mix ice synth- pop synthesizer with red-hot noise in various ways, and also present them in a more refined form . " ^[4] .

During the recording of the third album, Ethan adopted the rule "strictly without computers" ^[5] and the rejection of old synthesizers and keys. With this, Kat explained that he wanted “a new album to sound like a completely different and new experience” ^[5] for Crystal Castles. They decided to limit themselves to only one take for each song, as they believed that “the first attempt is the most accurate expression of ideas” ^[5] .

On October 8, 2014, lead singer of Crystal Castles announced on her Facebook page that she was leaving the group.

“I'm leaving Crystal Castles. My creativity and my self-expression in any form have always been an attempt to express sincerity, honesty and sympathy for others. For many reasons, both professional and personal, I feel that in Crystal Castles I can’t do this anymore, ”Alice wrote.

Alice Glass also added that she intends to pursue a career as a solo artist ^[6] .

Ethan Kat continues to work as Crystal Castles and records the next album. Confirming that the band is still alive, they posted a new track “Frail” and then “Deicide” on SoundCloud.

The music magazine NME included the group's debut studio album in its list of “100 Best Albums of the Decade” ^[7] .

Studio Albums

• Crystal Castles (2008)
• Crystal Castles (II) (2012)
• III (2012)
• Amnesty (I) (2016)

EPs

• Alice Practice (2006)
• Crimewave (2007)
• Split (2007)
• Untrust Us (2008)
• Celestica (2010)
• Doe Deer (2010)

Singles

• "Crimewave"
• "Air War"
• Courtship Dating
• "Vanished"
• "Celestica"
• "Baptism"
• “Not In Love (feat. Robert Smith)”
• "Plague"
• "Wrath of God"
• "Affection"
• "Frail"
• "Deicide"
• Concrete
• "Char"
• Fleece

Remixes

• GoodBooks “Leni” (2006)
• Klaxons Atlantis to Interzone (2006)
• The Little Ones “Lovers Who Uncover” (2006)
• The Whip “Divebomb” (2007)
• Uffie “Make It Hot” (2007)
• Bloc Party “Hunting For Witches” (2007)
• Switches “Lay Down the Law” (2007)
• Sohodolls “Trash the Rental” (2007)
• Liars - “It Fit When I Was A Kid” (2007)
• White Lies "Death" (2009)
• Health “Eat Flesh” (2010)
• Sidewalks and Skeletons Violent Dreams (2013)
• Mr.Kitty “Frail” (2016)

• You love her coz she's dead
• Heartsrevolution
• Kap bambino
• Klaxons ^[8]

• crystalcastles.com - official site of Crystal Castles
• Crystal Castles at Last.fm