Crystal Castles @ Sound Academy - April 2

EMBRACE PRESENTS

CRYSTAL CASTLES
w/ Special Guests
Saturday, April 2, 2011 - Sound Academy
11 Polson St., Toronto

Crystal Castles were named after the lines "The fate of the world is safe in Crystal Castles" and "Crystal Castles, the source of all power", both lines referring to fictional character She-Ra's fortress in the sky. It is also a reference to the Atari arcade game Crystal Castles, as the bands sound often echoes arcade game noise. The band was formed in December 2003 as a solo project started by Ethan Kath. Ethan later discovered Alice Glass singing in her noise-punk band, and thought he had found the "missing ingredient" to his music. In 2004 Ethan gave Alice 60 instrumental tracks. In April 2005 Alice Glass recorded vocals over five of these new instrumentals. The microphone test for this recording session was secretly recorded by the studio's engineer and was later released as the band's first single, "Alice Practice", a limited edition 7" vinyl on London's Merok Records, released in June 2006 and sold out immediately. Glass was not aware the microphone test recording existed until Merok Records asked to release it.

Many limited edition 7" vinyl singles followed in 2007 on various tiny labels including 2 on London's Trouble Records. All singles sold out immediately. Finally, in 2008, Lies Records collected most of the singles and released them on a CD for the first time, along with many previously unreleased tracks and 3 songs recorded just for the collection. This eponymous debut album, Crystal Castles, was also released as a double album on 12" vinyl. The band's eponymous debut album was included in the "Top 50 Greatest Albums of the Decade" by NME Magazine, at number 39.

The band's second album, also titled Crystal Castles but known as "Crystal Castles II", was released on 24 May 2010. In April 2010 an early mix of the album leaked and without any record label promotion the leak reached #1 on various electronic music charts worldwide.

The album was produced by Ethan Kath in various places, including a church in Iceland, a self-built cabin in northern Ontario, an abandoned convenience store garage in Detroit, Michigan, and two songs recorded in the London studio of Paul "Phones" Epworth.

Tickets $23.50 Advance (plus service charge) • All Ages Event / Licensed • Doors @ 8PM

Tickets on sale this MONDAY at http://www.ticketmaster.ca/event/10004553C990B674?artistid=1178985&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=1, All Ticketmaster Outlets, Rotate This, Soundscapes & Play De Record.