Album Review

Crystal Fighters – Star Of Love

• 19th Aug 2011

Clearly, the powers that be must consider that there is still mileage left in Crystal Fighters, as this August sees the band being subjected to Satan’s own ‘Deluxe Edition’ re-release treatment.

As infuriating as this may be for fans that have already shelled out for Star Of Love, this may possibly be a necessary evil.

It seems rather astounding that a band with purpose built tracks that induce the feeling of summer and all-night parties should have had their album released in October, as it was last year, an August release to coincide with a number of festival dates seems a far more sensible option, and considering that an overwhelming 7 tracks from a 12 track album have been deemed fit for release, with Plage being the latest to come out earlier this month, it is obvious that Star Of Love is virtually filler free.

For those that aren’t yet aware of it, Crystal Fighter’s debut is an exciting melting pot of cultures and ideas, of disparate sounds and genres that are thrown together with a joyful abandon and somehow come through the other side of their sonic filter as the most intriguing new sounds around that should be shaking warehouse raves and festivals for years to come.

Bass heavy opener, Solar System, lays down the solid foundations for everything else that follows, beat driven reverberations clash with rustic spanish instrumentation and a balearic vibe, whilst Follow’s traditional sounding sing-song vocals bring the catalan past to the forefront of hipster nightlife.  Xstatic Truth and I Love London, two tunes that heralded the bands arrival on the music scene are still every bit as electric, eccentric and vital as they were upon there release two years ago, if not more so.

5 acoustic versions of existing tracks have been added to the re-release, and sadly, these don’t really stack up when compared to the original album as it was intended, the stripping away of drum machines and synths reveals the inner workings of each of the tracks, but perhaps would have fared better as a separate EP release for real fans, other than trying to expand on an already outstanding album.