Crystal Castles @ Oxford Art Factory, Sydney (15/12/07)

Crystal Castles, just like their name suggests, project a sharp, shattering and majestic sound. And it was a sound that completely tore Oxford Art Factory to shreds last Saturday night. The band is composed of vocalist Alice Glass and instrumentalist Ethan Fawn, whose combined talent will not simply move you, but take you on an emotional rollercoaster. If you haven’t heard of them yet then you soon will, because they’re exploding like a volcano with their innovative and creative sounds. Despite their music being incredibly hard to define, the melodic sensations they produce are ethereal and amazing, and composed with unusual instrumentation.

Crystal Castles are of their own genre that is sometimes referred to as ‘bitpop’: an eclectic combination of early video game sounds, along with modern day instruments and vocals. The addition of Atari chips produces tweaking noises and bleeping sensations reminiscent of computer game noises from the 70s and 80s, and it’ll leave you stunned and asking, “how on earth did they do that?” Apart from throwing chopped-up vocal snippets over intensely pulsating videogame-esque electro vibes, Alice’s hard hitting vocal effects definitely flavour the sound with an escapist intensity, reaching so deep and giving almost too much emotion to digest. As you might be able to tell, I’ve been completely infatuated with Crystal Castles and have been desperately anticipating seeing them perform ever since I first heard them.

The show started with a hooded Ethan alone on stage experimenting with sounds on his keyboard; shortly followed by a ghost-like- Alice jumping onto the stage, armed with a bottle of alcohol and thrashing about wildly. Her stage presence was really amazing. I was extremely skeptical about how many of their songs could be executed live: however, Alice delivered all the songs with such fierce energy and frighteningly wonderful stage antics that you couldn’t help but be amazed by her. Her chaotic, densely incomprehensible screaming somehow translated into eerie perfection.

She brilliantly demonstrated the kind of beauty that can only be found in chaos, and it drove straight through me with her heart-wrenching shrieks, combined with all the terrifying beeps of course. The musicians provided an incredibly infectious beat with some unrelated and layered babble, which somehow managed to make perfect sense. A few more songs were performed, and then they disappeared from view. I looked at the time and to my disappointment, I realised their show had only lasted around 20 minutes. I’ve gotta admit, I was extremely annoyed about not having heard some of my favourite remixes performed live.

While it was admittedly very short, the Crystal Castles show was a euphoric experience and left me completely in awe of the duo. The internet generation proves that anyone can make it big, with their every cyber-release bombarding music blogs at breakneck speed. Their first full-length album will be released through Last Gang, so you’d be well-advised to keep a look out for it!