Crystal Castles aren’t dead, guys! Just when we thought the prophecy of more new music might never come true, the experimental Canadian group have returned with an impressive new track called Frail.
That said, the group’s longtime frontwoman Alice Glass is still no longer part of the project (cue sadface), so Crystal Castles’ Ethan Kath has teamed up with a brand-new vocalist, who has been identified only as “Edith”.
Frail (below) delves right back into that instantly recognisable Crystal Castles sound. The track’s bass-heavy rhythms and strobe-like synths would have sat quite nicely on the group’s most recent studio album, III, which was released in 2012.
Frail has been posted to Crystal Castles’ Soundcloud page, but as Pitchfork reports, Kath posted a short statement along with the song, which has since been removed. In it, he claimed that people sometimes gave Glass credit for his lyrics, but he’s happy for her to move on.
The removed statement read:
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. (she’s not on Untrust Us. Not In Love, Vanished, Crimewave, Vietnam, Magic Spells, Knights, Air War, Leni, Lovers Who Uncover, Violent Youth, Reckless, Year of Silence, Intimate, 1991, Good Time, Violent Dreams etc.). people often gave her credit for my lyrics and that was fine, i didn’t care.
Glass announced that she was leaving Crystal Castles last October, claiming that her art and self-expression could no longer function as part of the group. At the time, the group’s manager hinted that it wouldn’t be the end of the band, and thankfully, it wasn’t.
Here Frail in full, below.
Listen: Crystal Castles – Frail
