“You are the music while the music lasts.” -T.S. Eliot
Atoms for Peace – “What the Eyeballs Did”
There’s something eerily Cramp-ish about the B-side to the upcoming Atoms for Peace 12” (out November 19th via XL). Maybe it’s the track title, or Flea’s wobbly-yet-persistent bassline, or the fact that I’ve still got Halloween on my mind, but I swore Lux Interior was about to start howling about killer eyeballs. Then Thom Yorke’s wailing falsetto reminded me that poor Lux is no more (R.I.P.) and that this isn’t The Cramps. But that’s not to say “What the Eyeballs Did” is disappointing—because it’s not. Yorke is building off the skittish beats of The Eraser and letting his bandmates carve the soundscapes. Symphonic chords rise and fall to pulse off the aforementioned bassline—ostensibly the creative work of Nigel Godrich and Flea respectively. Yorke’s vocals are mostly indistinguishable, peeking out of the mix for a line or two before diving right back into the murk. -Jon Hadusek
Crystal Castles – “Affection”
The core components of “Affection” are that of a standard electropop song: rat-a-tat beats, oscillating drones, reverb-drenched vocals, and synthetic keyboard riffs. It’s Crystal Castles’ arrangement of these elements that extricate the duo from the massive amount of electro/dance producers using the same aesthetics. Singer Alice Glass never lets us hear what she has to say; her words are garbled by sound effects, though her voice still hits low notes, high notes, unsettling notes, and electronically altered notes. That’s Crystal Castles’ shtick. It’s weird—scary, even—but you can still dance to it. “Affection” is the latest cut from the group’s forthcoming LP, (III), which is out November 12th via Casablanca/Fiction/Universal Republic. -Jon Hadusek
