Crystal Stilts
Departure

Our single of the week (6th February 2009)

This record left our Brian feeling ecstatic.

I really like Crystal Stilts but have suffered a slight problem with the vocals, as if they're merely incidental and detract from the relative richness & smoky analogue production of their 60's garage/noir-wave. It's not that they're remotely bad, or annoying. I merely wish they had a feisty female vocal to bounce of the slightly blurred sub JAMC/Interpol meandering. Get that Frankie lady who they nicked off Vivian Girls to holler a bit from her drum stool in future? These 2 tracks lifted from their original Slumberland full lengther and licensed to Angular for their 1st official UK release are quite different beasts, the first 'Departure' is fucking excellent, loaded with a shitkicking voodoo thump, a trashed scratchy Rickenbacker guitar squall, a looming bass grumbling away underneath & an overall vibe not unlike early Cure waltzing along a crumbling promenade with Clinic & VU! 'Prismatic Room' sounds like Blue Orchids & The Clean doing a drunken 60's psych cover on mogadon, the shambling tambourine-fuelled mess propped up with a cheeky organ that is both sad & uplifting at the same time, those lovely dying swallow tremolo effects poised for the very best in entertainment. Actually, I just got over my hang-up with the vocals, this is just excellent. SOTW.

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What their label says...

· Brooklyn's spectral garage-pop quintet, Crystal Stilts, release their debut
UK single through Angular, the first to be taken from forthcoming album
‘Alight of Night’. ‘Departure’ is a concise atmospheric echoing
masterpiece, but has a pop sensibility that is already grabbing the
attention of many people in the UK.
· Whilst the airwaves have been filled with the onslaught of Brooklyn's
psychedelic scene for the past year or so, Crystal Stilts embody a wholly
different and darker sphere.
· They feature ex Vivian Girls' drummer Frankie Rose, and musically,
their sound has been likened to a variety of different sources: New
Zealand's Flying Nun label (The Chillis, The Bats), The Velvet
Underground, the gothic howl of psychobilly pioneers The Gun Club
and of course the garage pop sensibilities of Jesus and The Mary Chain.

A Departure
B Prismatic Room

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