So weird to think 2012 is coming to a close. It doesn’t feel like it at all, what with no Holiday break, no Christmas stuff, no New Years parties to look forward to, etc. They just don’t care about New Years here in Israel. Kind of a shame…BUT what’s not a shame, is how many awesome albums came out this year.So today I’m dropping the Gold Soundz pick for 10-6  and tomorrow 5-1.

Originally this was a lot longer, but I didn’t have time to write long things for all of them so it’s just like a line or two per album

10. Lotus Plaza – Spooky Action At A Distance

A phenomally strong album of great, shoegaze-pop songs that will force everyone to reconsider how large a role he plays in Deerhunter‘s awesomeness. But even if we were to forget the Deerhunter connection for a second, this is an album that would stand out anyway. Cuz it’s great.

9. Sleigh Bells – Reign Of Terror

Sleigh Bells go pop and the result is something along the lines of The Jesus And Mary Chain fronted by a real badass chick. Loved this album big times.

8. Crystal Castles – (III)

My hometown electro-goths went witchhouse and made their best and most consistent album yet. Another solid accomplishment from a band that continues to surprise and impress.

7. Jens Lekman – I Know What Love Isn’t

A true pop masterpiece, Jens Lekman‘s album scores huge on melodies and lyrics on this, his third album. Also, a goldmine of great lines like “No, I hate bands/It’s always packed with guys spooning their girlfriends and clutching their hands/As if they let, they could lift from the ground and ascend.”

6. John Maus – A Collection Of Rarities And Previously Unreleased Material

No other artist interviews as interestingly as John Maus – the man is an astounding intellect, and furthermore, as his albums display, a fine pop tunesmith. Very surprisingly, this collection of rare and unreleased material might actually be his best release yet, with song after song of hummable melodies and often confounding lyrics.

Hoooold me clooser tiny…uh…burka ninja?

Man. The Castles of Crystal return. I remember seeing these guys at Sound Academy last summer and they were badddd-assss. Really cool. So how’s the latest (presumably) from album #3 sounding?

“Plague” – which, surprisingly, is not already the name of a Crystal Castles song – lightens up on the 8-bit/glitchy sounds and instead heads in a more witch-house direction. I know 99% of those reading the unironic use of the word “witch-house” may be groaning, but “Plague” without a doubt sounds like Crystal Castles trying to work off of Salem‘s kind of platform. I mean, it’s got the whole moan-ey, dark/stormy, sexy-thing going on. Come on, ‘witch-house’ is the word for this shit. That’s been decided already.

Of course this is not a huge or radical leap in sound for Crystal Castles – more like a short hop down the tempo count – but still, nice to see the Toronto terrible twosome moving in a bit of a different direction. And, of course, still sounding bad-ass.

By the way, compare it with Salem‘s “King Night” if you don’t believe me:

Tell me that shit doesn’t sound prettttty similar.

Was debating whether making this a ‘Have You Heard The New…?’ post or not, but decided against it cuz Trust isn’t quite at that level yet. Soon though, hopefully. The Toronto post-punk/witch-house/whatever band – that seems to have spawned from the same pile of bedamned Hell-matter as Crystal Castles and Austra – just dropped their debut on A&C (venturing into unfamiliar territory with this release) and will be playing Toronto’s Wrongbar this Saturday, March 3rd (my birthday!). Should be a solid show.

Saw Crystal Castles last night and that band is amazing. Ethan just, like, doesn’t say anything, looks like some kind of hip ghost who plays a bunch of synths and can only vocalize via vocoder, and Alice is some kind of master performance artist. Hobbling onstage with a broken leg in a cast and a walking stick mathinger, she seems like a zombie or a person on the verge of just falling into pieces. Then the music starts and it’s like a demon possesses her, willing her to crowd-walk (walk, or attempt to, on top of the crowd) and throwing her into rhythmic convulsions. It was beautiful.

Likeminded dark, synthy Toronto-based band TRUST opened the show and their set was also great. With only a 7″ to their name, they had no problem pumping out one great gloomy bumper after another. And even though the dude’s voice sounds super low and you’d practically imagine Bela Lugosi on vocals, he’s actually a very nice, not creepy guy as far as I can tell. Did not dress in black either. Interesting. Can’t wait for their album to drop.

TRUST – Candy Walls

This week’s band of the week is an infamous Toronto duo that kicks ass, even if somebody said they stole all their music from other artists. The band of the week is…

CRYSTAL CASTLES!!!

Named after She-Ra’s fortress in the sky, this electronic Toronto duo got big after a song called “Alice Practice” got uploaded online. Suddenly they had like five different offers from record companies. The song was just Ethan Kath messing around with sounds while singer Alice Glass did a vocal soundcheck, and they didn’t even know it was online until the companies contacted them. 

Crystal Castles make electronic dance music, notable for its use of 8-bit sounds and singer Glass’s chic punky vocals. The project began just as Kath doing his thing, but after meeting Glass while doing community service work, the two began started working together. Their early singles got rave reviews and their shows were (and are) notorious for being all out shit-storms. A full-length album followed, as well as all kinds of lawsuits involving copyright infringements from left, right and center. Now they’re one of the hottest dance acts on the planet. And with good reason, because they seriously kick ass.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jY-Dl1T_V8]

They’re also the biggest band to use elements of 8-bit or Chiptune in their music. Chiptune is now its own musical genre, in which artists use Gameboy-esque sounds to create electronic music not unlike what was heard in video games in the early days. Check out this article about my experience at a recent Chiptunes showcase in Toronto: http://grubtunes.blogspot.com/2009/05/bowzer-attacks-at-bread-and-circus-may.html

http://www.myspace.com/crystalcastles

Click here to purchase Crystal Castles off Amazon.

What is Chiptune? Chiptune – sometimes also referred to as 8-bit – music is music made with the 8-bit sounds you used to hear on old Gameboy, Super Nintendo and Sega consoles. The Super Mario theme? One the most well known compositions in modern music? Well, that was probably the biggest precursor to 8-bit, which uses those sounds to create new music in a new context. Chiptune or 8-bit artists will combine 8-bit sounds with drum-machines, guitars, vocals or pretty much anything, experimenting with different styles and sounds and taking the music a generation grew up listening to in video games to completely unpredictable and incredible places. Though Chiptune is already a big thing in some other cities, and even warranted an entire movie dedicated to it – Reformat The Planet, which was Pitchfork TVs “One Week Only” movie some time ago – in Toronto, the whole Chiptune thing has yet to take off. Surprising, considering the most internationally popular group to utilize Chiptune sounds is Toronto’s own Crystal Castles. 

The first act was Tetris Hold’Em, a Toronto duo with crazy wigs making weird, sorta Jungle or Drum N’ Bass style 8-bit. Their set was this long, dark amorphous jam which was cool but it didn’t get people up and dancing. Perhaps it was more interesting than it was enjoyable but still…not bad.

Second act, Montreal’s Battle Lava got the show started. We moved away a couple of tables and chairs from the front and a couple of us started crowding the stage. The dude behind the music was hanging out in front of the stage (not on it) and just hanging out with his Gameboy, dancing. Eventually he took off his shirt – shit was getting too hot clearly. The set was more pop-based, more accessible, catchy, enjoyable. By the end a lot of people were dancing, most noticeably his girlfriend (the chick dressed in blue in the pic below). 

By the time Toronto’s PDF Format took the stage, the crowd was riled up and PDF Format delivered the goods. Standing onstage with a guitar, in a monotone voice he made quirky remarks to the crowd about having to change his artist name for every new song so that old fans wouldn’t be mad at him for changing and asking us to imagine that the next song was being sung by a robot that had broken down and could only say, “Don’t drink the water it’s poison,” or something like that. As entertaining as he himself was, his set was phenomenal. Every song was huge, catchy, beautiful, exciting, perfect for dancing to and dance to it we did. People started like a weird dance circle and me and my friends were moshing to the 8-bit awesomeness. And then there was his phenomenal cover of The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” which pretty much made everyone simultaneously orgasm it was so good. Seriously. After his set me and my friends went and got drinks (“ELECTROLYTES!!!”) and all agreed that we had had the more fun at this concert than we’d had in like…a long time. And we go out to concerts like every night. Seriously, check out his myspace and future shows, you’ll thank me, hopefully with sexual favors. 

We kind of all felt bad for TouchBoy, who was on next, because everyone danced so hard to PDF Format that we were all tired and spent by that time with no more energy for the next act. We checked him out for a bit, but PDF Format just like killed the night. The room was empty and everyone left was just tired. Too bad because TouchBoy was decent. His stuff was a little slower, kind of like 8-bit techno. 

Anyways, if you’re not familiar with Chiptune or 8-bit, check it out. There’s various blogs and websites totally dedicated to it and in the future I plan on setting up some Chiptune shows around the city and possibly establishing a Chiptune community here like the one in New York and other cities. Anyone interested in helping me or becoming a part of this is encouraged to contact me at landsawy@hotmail.com.

http://8bitcanada.blogspot.com/

http://8bitcollective.com/