Revisited: Crystal Castles

Revisited: Crystal Castles (Self-Titled)

So far in this mini series of album reviews, we've brought you The Psychedelic Furs, The Strokes and Tubeway Army. This month we are taking a different approach. In 2008 Crystal Castles released an album which went on to make number 39 in the NME's Top 100 Albums of the decade. Eight years on and one member down Crystal Castles are still going strong. But their debut album still remains a signal-post in modern electronic music. 

Album opener is simple at best. Lyrically, it's just one line repeated throughout "La cocaina no es buena para su salud / La cocaina is not good for you". The line is sampled from a track by Death From Above 1979 called "Dead Womb". In terms of the instrumentation, this song largely reflects the entire album. It's very minimalist electronic music with a rudimentary beat. From here on, the energy on the album intensifies. Exemplified by the following track "Alice Practice" which in simple terms is a platform for vocalist Alice Glass to shout incomprehensible lyrics over some jarring and harsh electronic sounds put together by Ethan Kath. In fact Kath stated in an interview in 2008 "I want to make the most annoying sounds ever for Alice to scream over". (NME 2013) 

Following track 'Crimewave' is where we hear what Crystal Castles can do with electronic music. The melodies they create with the music are at times, sublime. There are clear characteristics of glitch music within the album and this song in particular. At times the music is loose but it's clear that this is done on purpose through experimentation and listening to strange chiptune music. 

The album is a lengthy affair with 16 tracks in total. The midway point of the album takes a slightly different direction, gone are the harsh electronic sounds and in come softer pleasant sounds. 'Good Time' sounds like it could have been lifted from a GameBoy edition of Pokemon and 'Vanished' is one of the strongest songs on the album. Sure, lyrically it doesn't really make any sense and the vocals are - at times hidden behind an effect - but the hook of the lead instrument (whatever that may be) draws you in like a fish on a rod. 'Knights' is a relentless instrumental that comes out of nowhere. Its driving beat is infectious; but the harshness is lifted meaning that the mash of electronic glitches aren't irritating. They come together to create something soft in comparison to previous tracks.

If one song would summarise this brilliant album it would be 'Black Panther'. Instrumentally it's pure chiptune. But somehow it creates a sense of euphoric emotion leaving you shocked that this electronic music does have soul behind it. Again, the lyrics are incomprehensible, but that doesn't matter when the instrumentation does all the talking. It's so breezy and joyful that it leaves the dark opening set of tracks far behind. The album is a journey. A journey that you will never want to end.

9/10

The NME Awards 2016

The NME Awards 2016: Who Won What

Tonight (17/02/2016) saw the annual NME awards take place in London. If you don't know who won what then you're in luck! We take a look at who took home one of the infamous NME award statues. 

Best British Band - The Maccabees 

Best Live Band - Wolf Alice 

Best Album - Foals (What Went Down) 

Best International Band - Run The Jewels 

Best Track - Wolf Alice (Giant Peach) 

Best Video - Slaves (Cheer Up London) 

Best Fan Community - The Libertines

Best Festival - Glastonbury 

Best T.V Show - This Is England '90

Best International Solo Artist - Taylor Swift

Best British Solo Artist - Charli XCX

Best New Artist - RAT BOY

Music Moment Of The Year - The Libertines @ Glastonbury

Godlike Genius - Coldplay

The NME 1952 - 2015

The NME 1952-2015

As you know, the NME (New Musical Express) recently decided that their magazine should be available for free. With sales plummeting, general interest in the magazine declining and the usual suspects on the cover (I'm looking at you Alex Turner) a decision was made. It has given the magazine a chance to start afresh. Away from the days of endlessly assuring that Noel Gallagher must feature in every issue.

One good thing about it however which made it a desirable publication was the new bands section. Christened as the 'Radar' section, they did tip bands like Arctic Monkeys, The Vaccines, Oasis, Wolf Alice, Florence and The Yeah Yeah Yeah's for success early on in their careers and thus they haven't strayed too far from the magazines pages. However, when they got it wrong, they got it really wrong. Remember The Enemy? and The Pigeon Detectives? Even further back with the likes of Embrace, Shed 7 and Starsailor. When these bands failed to make the grade, the NME would shove them to the side with some crude remarks and a 5/10 album review (which in all honestly they probably deserved). 

Flicking through this new free NME, you just get a sinking feeling that the love of music has left the publication. And low and behold the first two pages of the first free NME are a tour poster advertising one of those bands they tipped for greatness The Libertines. A good start then. Looking at the contents nothing really grabs my attention, sure, the 'Radar' section is there but you're in for a nasty surprise when you reach it. Elsewhere we have a feature about The Big Bang Theory, an interview with Rihanna and a feature about Scottish trio Chvrches. A mixed bag then. They also have a feature entitled 'Things We Like' a mish mash of items that the people in the NME office apparently like. I doubt it. Why would you make a big deal of a magazine going free stating that "its packed full of things you want to read and - significantly - free" and then say oh yeah we really like these £90 trainers and we think you should go and buy them. They're missing the point a bit there. 

That nasty surprise about the 'Radar' section is that the NME of old would give new bands a chance to be heard. I remember they did a bumper edition of 'Radar' at the beginning of 2014 with big pieces on bands like Iceage and Eagulls. Now however 'Radar' is not about new bands its about "Best New Tracks, And when to drop them" on the title alone you know its not going to worth reading. Not a new band in sight. Eagles of Death Metal, Hurts and Carly Rae Jepsen are all in there with descriptions like "best for hip-shaking". It goes against what 'Radar' was all about. 

Who knows how long the NME will last now, twenty years down the line they might still be going strong and shifting lots of copies. There might be a journalism revolution by then and the NME could be completely re-branded again. Time will tell.

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: Chasing Yesterday Review

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: Chasing Yesterday Album Review.

"Chasing Yesterday feels like it has no heart"

With his Oasis days behind him – despite constant rumours about the band reforming – Noel Gallagher returns after three years with his second solo album and though it may contain some epic arena ballads, there is nothing new or innovative that suggests that Gallagher is trying to distance himself from the heavy rain cloud that is Oasis, something which he didn’t quite manage with his first solo record. Will Chasing Yesterday show us that Gallagher can create his own sound as a solo artist? The answer to that is unfortunately, no.

The first sign of this failure to break away from Oasis is the title of the album Chasing Yesterday which immediately suggests Gallagher wants a fix of Oasis back in his life. Sure, there are some songs which contain pristine melodies like ‘Lock All The Doors’ which is pure rock ‘n’ roll but lacks creativity and flair and this reflects the album as a whole. There are some standout tracks and you can already hear them being sung from the rooftop of any arena such as ‘In the Heat of the Moment’ and ‘You Know We Can’t Go Back’, the former especially as it has an extremely catchy vocal hook but this doesn’t save Gallagher from creating a mediocre album when he should have created one that would define him as a solo artist.

This lack of musical diversity on Chasing Yesterday is really disappointing, especially from someone who is extremely talented and has been in one of the most successful bands of all time. Gallagher has tried to incorporate some different grooves that have a slight psychedelic feel about them such as ‘The Right Stuff’ but then there are songs like ‘Girl with X-Ray Eyes’ which feels like a second hand ‘Masterplan’. Even an appearance from former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr does nothing to improve the album.

Chasing Yesterday could have been the album that showed everyone the true depth of Noel Gallagher’s talent and musicianship. Instead the album is lacklustre and in a world where small bands are crying out for key influences, the album is just uninspiring. Those bands might as well bypass Gallagher’s solo stuff and just listen to Oasis. Overall it just lacks creativity and feels like it has no heart.

Foo Fighters to Headline Glastonbury

Foo Fighters Confirmed to play Glastonbury

It has been confirmed this evening (18 Feb) that american rock legends and arguably the biggest band in the world at the moment Foo Fighters will headline Glastonbury festival this year. The band who won an NME award for best international group announced during the ceremony that they will be headlining the Somerset based festival via a video message.

Foo Fighters are the first headline act to be announced for the festival and will fill the Friday headline slot. There are still many rumours as to who else will headline the festival including Fleetwood Mac and Florence and the Machine neither of which have been confirmed.

Foo Fighters released their eight studio album Sonic Highways in November 2014 through RCA records and it peaked at number two in the UK album charts hit number one in America.