Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles [2LP]

Crystal Castles arrived in 2008 sounding like a haunted arcade cabinet with a punk singer trapped inside, and this self-titled debut on two LPs still feels gloriously unhinged.

The Toronto duo of Ethan Kath and Alice Glass had already built a cult following through chaotic live shows and a handful of limited singles before this album gathered that early material alongside fresh tracks. Kath's production famously leaned on a modified Atari sound chip, bending eight-bit bleeps and crunchy, overdriven synths into something abrasive yet oddly beautiful, while Glass treated her voice as one more distorted instrument.

Alice Practice is the stuff of indie legend, a track that began life as a soundcheck recording, her shredded shriek tearing through a jittering, overloaded beat. Crimewave reworks a song by noise-rock allies HEALTH into a woozy, melancholy dance track, Untrust Us opens the record in a haze of shimmering, looped synths, and Air War bounces on a frantic, bright melody built for sweaty basements.

Across sixteen tracks the record swings between punishing noise and sudden tenderness, which is exactly why it still sounds so thrilling. It helped set the template for a whole wave of blog-era electronic acts, and on double vinyl it plays like a glitch-soaked fever dream worth having again and again.