When your name is lifted from a SHE-RA reference, there's a tinge of punk-rock irony to your roots, but electro-duo Crystal Castles are from another pair of geeks with a laptop. Their debut is an assured slab of catchy glitches, Atari-infused madness, and fuzzy punk thrash. The balance of spastic aggression and sublime futurismo substantiates the totality of CRYSTAL CASTLES as a complete artistic statement, but it is straightforwardly lush excursions like “Crimewave” and pop-vocal numbers like “Good Times” that most boldly captivate, carrying on the classic Kraftwerk tradition of twitchy transcendence and fusing it with more modernly danceable songcraft.
