As the Japan and Denmark World Cup game slowly came to a close on Thursday I started to notice a rumbling sound that seemed to be vibrating my house. I shrugged it off at first, not really paying attention to it; I live in New Jersey, and of course there are a plethora of nuclear power plants and drug manufacturing plants surrounding me that could at some point in time implode or melt-down and destroy the slowly diminishing remains of this state that I have grown to love, but I’m not necessarily expecting that to happen. Nor would I be expecting a hurricane or a tornado, however such natural occurrences were about to happen, unbeknownst to me.
The rumbling sound started to grow louder and more violent, which eventually caught my attention. At first I believed it to be the overpowering sounds of the vuvuzelas as they deeply ingrained their pitch into my brain, creating some sort of reverberation that echoed throughout the inner parts of my body. Suddenly with the encroaching sounds of thunder and lightning I realized that it was an approaching storm. I turned the television off, turned on the new album by Crystal Castles and opened my bedroom window. It was about three in the afternoon and the sky was an ominous dark green. The winds were quickening their pace and the trees around my house were swaying within the wave-like pushes of air. The washes of synthesizers complimented this sight perfectly. I kept the volume low enough to distinguish the natural sounds outside my window. Lightning flashes and thunderous claps from the sky broke the albums force and control while settling and allowing the ethereal voices and electronic hazes to recapture my attention. Songs like: “Fainting Spells,” “Celestica,” “Baptism,” “Year of Silence,” ” Empathy,” “Suffocation,” and “Vietnam,” made the events that more incredible with their intricately structured chaos and divinely floated melodies.
As the storm started to gain more force the second self-titled release by Crystal Castles became more of a compliment to the weather than I had previously expected. The abrasive bombardment of “Doe Deer,” seemed to fit perfectly amongst the cracks and rumbles pushing down from above. There is a forcefulness to this music that does capture the violent sounds of a pounding storm while simultaneously soothing the listener through synths and electronic electrical storms. The new release is a giant departure from the style found on their debut self-titled release. The gothic pulsations of this new release seem to fit more comfortably within my appreciations, not to mention they single handedly scored, for me, the events of hurricane and tornado-like effects.
The storm reached it’s climax around the three minute and fifteen second mark of “Not In Love,” where it then unfortunately made the power fail throughout a good portion of South Jersey. In it’s wake, trees were uplifted out of the ground and tossed around like toothpicks. Cars and houses were covered and smashed by the uplifted and falling debris, while other objects such as trampolines and gazeboes were flown through the air only to land in unfortunate places. Power was in effect lost for over twenty-one hours and I am only now able to relay my perceptions. Luckily, I had Crystal Castles new self-titled release playing while I looked onwards through.
