Reading/Leeds Festival Line-up reaction UPDATE! Part 3

NME/RADIO ONE STAGE ADDITIONS
READING SUNDAY
THE MUSIC
Hey remember us, you guys? When sounding like Kasabian was still cool? What do you mean that never happened?

HADOUKEN!
I would be tempted if I didn't feel as if I'd be woefully out of place here. I really didn't like "That Boy, That Girl", was only mildly interested in "Liquid Lives", and not been turned by anything I've heard since, but they are named after a move from Street Fighter. Hmm, decisions.

LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION
Test Icicles were arses, really. With songs like "Weezer vs. Foo Fighters" and "Boa vs. Python", their only release For Screening Purposes Only, was pretty shocking, only made up for the fact that their label signed them because they though they were going be like Franz Ferdinand. Anyway, regardless, they were amazing fun live, so much so that hearing them play actual songs was a great dissapointment. Lets hope that this, Dev Hynes' solo project, is a bit better musically.
CAJUN DANCE PARTY
They were one of my "bands to drop everything and see" last year but they turned out to be a bit wank in the "playing live" department. With an album newly released and another (apparently) on the way, lets hope their show has improved a little bit.

ADAM GREEN
Former member of the Moldy Peaches, Adam is touring his new album Sixes and Sevens.

YEASAYER
One of a clutch of a new wave of "experimental" American Indie bands alongside MGMT and Grizzly Bear, continuing the good work of their predecessors. Should be fun.

THE METROS
Sub-razorlight, sub-kooks, sub-kings cross rent boys all over cack, unfortunately from my neck of the woods, Saaarff Laandan.

I will not be covering the Lock-Up stage because I don't anything about it. It's unlikely that I will venture in there, but this does not mean I think it is all rubbish, just that I'm not that bothered. Or something.

DANCE STAGE
READING SUNDAY
CSS
Looks like I have someone to see instead of Metallica and The Cribs. CSS will have released their second album "Donkey" by then, which reportedly has a much more serious and rocky sound. The song "Rat Is Dead (Rage)" is availiable from their website now.
Can't wait to Hear: Their brilliant cover of L7's "Pretend We're Dead"

DIGITALISM
The German duo return to Reading to play another blistering set. I'd heartily recommend their album "Idealism" for any Daft Punk fans, or anyone who think Simian Mobile Disco are better than Justice.
Can't Wait to Hear: "Anything New"

SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO
So, the album was a bit weak, and the above mentioned Idealism was far better, but apparently these guys do a really good show and may well be a bit of a laugh. Their remixes are certainly better than their original stuff, anyway.
Can't Wait to Hear: Any of their remixes.

CHROMEO
These guys are a bit odd, and after two albums of their electrofunk stylings, they are still going strong. Fancy Footwork is the more recent, and the better of the two.
Can't Wait To Hear: "Fancy Footwork"

CRYSTAL CASTLES
The Canadian duo of Ethan Kath and Alice Glass return to the Dance stage with the new album under their belt. Apparently they are awesome live.
Can't Wait To Hear: "Knights"

LETHAL BIZZLE
Funfact: I saw Lethal Bizzle the other day having a waterfight outside the Wedgewood Rooms ahead of his gig later that night.

HOLY FUCK
These improvising electronic Canadians are said to put on an amazing live show, and having missed them twice already, I really want to see what they can do.

THE WHIP
After a string of singles, the Manchester electro-poppers released their debut album "X Marks Destination" not long ago. It's alright, but is a bit too much White Rose Movement and not enough Rapture.

ROBOTS IN DISGUISE
This trio of Mighty Boosh extras (Dee Plume is dating Noel Fielding and the entire band have appeared in both the series and the Live tour) are apparently in a band. And have released 3 albums. Who knew?

THE SHOES
Not a clue + laziness = end of post!

ALBUM REVIEW: Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles

They've been around a little bit, the electronic duo of Ethan Kath and Alice Glass, and have split opinions for almost as long.

Tied inexplicably to the "new-rave scene", these guys are way more rave than the noisy art-punk of Klaxons et al, complete with a DIY punk ethic and the drugged-up pretention of a band who think they are better than everyone else.

Recent heavy promotion, including a small cameo part on Skins and an NME tour headliner slot means they are certainly being pushed for the big time. But make no mistake, this is Ethan's band.

Take "Alice Practice", which is the song they played on Skins and arguably their biggest track to date. The story goes that 18 year old vocalist was testing the mic and recording equipment by shouting obscurely worded lyrics and had no idea she was being recorded. Ethan then fitted a backing track around et voila, a song is born. In a recent interview in respected and hate-filled paper The Stool Pigeon showed that the relationship between Alice and the significantly older Ethan is a strange combination of Woody Allen and his "muses" and a twisted familial relationship of older brother and fightened younger sister.

Alice is not allowed to talk, and presumably is allowed little creative control over this album, which incidentally is the sound made by a dying 90s video arcade as the last forlorn teenager runs out of pound coins for the Street Fighter machine, and promptly kicks the shit out of it. Even the band is named after an old Atari game (that Wikipedia will lead you too should you search for "Crystal Castles").

Unsurprisingly, the album also contains "chipped" remixes of some songs, but under different names. "Crimewave" is creditted as "Crystal Castles vs. Health", "Vanished" samples Van She and opening track "Untrust Us" heavily uses old DFA1979 track "Dead Womb" (itself based on some sampling).

However the standout track for em, alongside a few slightly weaker ones, is former Kitsune maison resident "Knights", featuring Alice's despairing vocals, for once not distorted as much as on the rest of the album, where they are altered to the point that Ethan truly does exercise total control over the album.

What shocked me the most about this post-apocalyptic Arcade Fire (event, not band) is how fun it is. I can't listen to the retro stylings of "1991" without being reminded of the similar nostalgia-synth of Chromeo and just grinning. "XXZXCUZZ Me" (a remix of one of their own tracks) is literally the sound of a SNES being born, not from a factory, but screaming from the pregnant cartridge slot of another Super Nintendo.

It's not all great, and tracks like "Love and Caring" are an aural air strike of beeps and bips. But there's more than enough good stuff here to make up for it.

I expected pretention, and there is a fair heap of that, but on the whole what struck me is that past the polished, even hostile exterior of the band, and many of the tracks, Ethan and Alice are having a massive laugh with what they are doing.

8/10

Crystal Castles is out in the UK on the 28th April