By the power of Greyskull - Crystal Castles stun Camden

Crystal Castles weaved a magic spell on the Camden crowd

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Saturday, 19, Apr 2008 09:46

inthenews.co.uk's Lewis Bazley is in awe of the Toronto electro duo after a jawdropping set at the Camden Crawl 2008.

There should be something profoundly irritating about Crystal Castles. Not only are they a painfully-cool pair named after the refuge of She-Ra, the cartoon Princess of Power, not only do they make effortlessly stylish electro but they also claim to have met while volunteering as readers for the blind in Toronto. It's as if they've been conjured by a PR with a penchant for The Mighty Boosh.

But when the anachronistic Super Nintendo bleeps are countered with a wonderfully-nagging beat and your foot seems as if it's some slightly rubbish possessed extra from The Exorcist, you realise this band's genius lies in their complete and utter opposition to the orthodox. As Alice Glass screams with lovely amateurish might on the appropriately-named Alice Practice, an elemental tone is emitted and any notions of what you thought music needed to work are swiftly dismissed.

Whether there's a market for this is questionable - many of the songs are juddering irritants to the ears and not one track could ever have a shot at prime-time play.

As Crimewave washes over the heaving Purple Turtle in Camden, there's an instant in which you can't help but ask what the point of Crystal Castles is.

And then it hits. It's not the insouciant, smug cool of Alex Turner and the Arctics, it's not the throwback nonchalance of Klaxons, it's not the heart-pounding beats of Dizzee Rascal - it's the indomitable spirit of a music that's defiantly unpretentious, so homemade you want to cuddle it and invite it in for tea and intensely, overwhelmingly concerned with just doing it.

Check out the video for Magic Spells below

Crystal Castles' self-titled debut album is released on April 28th.