水晶城堡

Crystal Castles were a Canadian electronic music group formed in 2005 in Toronto, Ontario, by songwriter-producer Ethan Kath and singer-songwriter Alice Glass. Crystal Castles was known for their chaotic live shows and lo-fi melancholic homemade productions. They released many limited vinyl singles between 2006 and 2007 before releasing four studio albums between 2008 and 2016.

Glass announced her departure from the band in October 2014, citing personal and professional reasons, and was soon replaced by Edith Frances. Three years later, during the band's 2017 tour, Glass accused Kath of sexual misconduct during her time in Crystal Castles, causing the remaining tour dates to be cancelled. Crystal Castles has since been inactive, having provided no updates on new material or performances since Glass's allegations.

History

2004–2007: Formation and Alice Practice

Ethan Kath (born Claudio Palmieri) met Alice Glass (born Margaret Osborn) in Toronto, Ontario, when she was in the 10th grade and he was 10 years her senior. Kath had already found some fame in Toronto's music scene, having made appearances on local television with his previous band, Kïll Cheerleadër. A couple of years later, Kath asked Glass to record vocals over tracks he had been working on since 2003. The sessions resulted in the track "Alice Practice", which was shelved for six months.

After being posted online, this track garnered attention and the duo decided to re-form for a formal release. The pair picked their stage names together, with the name "Crystal Castles" pulled from a line in the cartoon She-Ra: Princess of Power: "The fate of the world is safe in Crystal Castles." Musical influences included Kraftwerk, New Order, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Pet Shop Boys and Yello.

Alice Practice became the band's first limited vinyl release in 2006. After miming the song on the British television series Skins, demand for the Alice Practice EP grew rapidly. Several limited-edition 7-inch vinyl singles followed in 2006 and 2007 on various independent labels, including two on London's Trouble Records. In February 2008, Kath said his aim was to "...make the most annoying sounds ever [for Alice to] scream over and then we'll try to open for Melt Banana".

2008–2009: Crystal Castles

On March 18, 2008, Lies Records collected most of the vinyl singles and released them on CD and 12-inch vinyl for their debut eponymous album titled Crystal Castles, along with many previously unreleased tracks and three songs recorded for the collection. As Kath had declared, some of the tracks, including "XXZXCUZX ME", were deliberately designed to be grating. This eponymous debut album was included in NME's "Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade" list at number 39.

In mid-2008, Pitchfork and the Torontoist blog published stories about Crystal Castles' use of Trevor Brown's artwork without his permission. The image, depicting the singer Madonna with a black eye, was used as the band's logo. The issue was resolved after the band bought the rights to use the image from Brown.

In one of Kath's earliest unreleased demos, he incorporated a sample without permission; years later his record label discovered the track and uploaded it to the label's MySpace page without Kath's permission, and without credit to the original sampled song. The track, "Insectica" (CC vs Lo-Bat version), uses clips chopped out of a song by Lo-bat called "My Little Droid Needs a Hand", released under a Creative Commons license. Another track called "Love and Caring", samples the kick and snare from Covox's "Sunday".

Crystal Castles toured and performed at numerous festivals around the world to support the album, including Ireland's Oxegen Festival, the All Points West Music & Arts Festival in New Jersey, Coachella Valley and Music Festival in Indio, California, the Heineken Open'er Festival in Poland, and the Reading and Leeds Festivals in England. They headlined a Vice magazine tour across the UK in November 2007, and the 2008 NME New Noise tour across the UK.

Crystal Castles performed at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2008, where the on-stage antics of Glass, including climbing the rigging and stage-diving, led to the organizers curtailing their set. Crystal Castles played five dates with Nine Inch Nails in August 2008. The band also played Connect 2008 and the Iceland Airwaves festival. Over Halloween, they played a gig in LA that involved Alice Glass wrecking the drum kit.

They supported Blur on the first of two comeback shows in Hyde Park, London in July 2009. They also performed at the 2009 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. Back in Toronto, Crystal Castles performed at the Sound Academy as part of the Time Festival.