Album Review

Crystal Castles – Courtship Dating

• 31st Mar 2008

How many songs have been written about taxidermy?

Probably very few, but apparently that is what Crystal Castles latest single is about, though to pick out any direct reference to the dieing art (no pun intended) is particularly difficult as the vocals are held so far back in the mix and subdued through subtle glitching and distortion that it becomes hard to pick out any meaning at all as the female voice becomes just another warped instrument caught up in the analogue beats.

Despite Crystal Castles subversive nature and the ferocity and devastating 8-bit noisecore of previous efforts, Courtship Dating is a far more gentle proposition that even flirts with radio friendliness, drifting in on a soundscape bearing a striking likeness to 50 cent’s Timbaland produced Ayo Technology before a waspy synthetic bassline and all manner of screams, bleeps and cracked gameboy beats are scattered into a slightly woozy and disorientating circuit board ballad.