Photo: Courtesy of Crystal Castles
The death of Crystal Castles has been greatly exaggerated as the dark experimental electro-pop project of songwriter/producer Ethan Kath announced a worldwide tour to go with the release of a new song and video, entitled “Concrete.” The Toronto group’s future was in doubt after frontwoman Alice Glass left to pursue a solo career in 2014. Her surprising departure got ugly when Kath released a new Crystal Castles song on Soundcloud, Frail, along with a statement that trashed the former singer, “i wish my former vocalist the best of luck in her future endeavors. i think it can be empowering for her to be in charge of her own project. it should be rewarding for her considering she didn’t appear on Crystal Castles’ best-known songs. people often gave her credit for my lyrics and that was fine, i didn’t care.”
Ouch.
Kath later took down the statement, but not before Glass slammed him in a series of tweets defending herself and her contribution to Crystal Castles music: “Manipulative statements about my contributions to the band only reinforce the decision I made to move on to other things.”
Touche!
Like any nasty divorce, we were all caught in the middle of the drama so it’s nice to see both artists now moving on with Glass releasing a solo single, “Stillbirth,” last year that increased awareness of domestic/sexual abuse (hmmm) and Kath now returning to black magic, dancefloor form with a new album, video, and singer. There is no denying that Edith Frances not only screams like Glass but has that vacant-eyed, dark lipstick, succubus-thing going on too. The darkly melodic “Concrete” is classic Crystal Castles with Frances’ banshee howls over a hauntingly aggressive soundscape.
The tour will kick off this September (find tour dates here) in the states, before wrapping up in Europe in December.
