Saturday, March 24, 2007

The Presets and Crystal Castles at the ExPlx



While everyone was at SWSX, I was fighting my jetlag at the ExPlx to see The Presets and Crystal Castles.The ExPlx is located below the Echo and recently opened. It is a lot larger and nicer than the Echo in addition to a decent soundsystem. Crystal Castles opened the show with their glitchy/electronic mashed up sound. The mix was awful unfortunately as Alice's vocals were difficult to hear and the new soundsystem was clipping during their set. Their tracks on myspace sounded better. I did particularly enjoy one song that featured Ethin on vocoder via his MicroKorg. The Presets delivered a stunning set that had the whole place jumping and dancing. I haven't seen that much movement since The Rapture at the Astoria in London. I still am jealous of their double Korg MS-20 setup along with a laptop running Ableton Live 6. The Presets know how to get the party going with their incorporation of samples from Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys, and Daft Punk blended into their set. Stand out tracks included "The Girl and The Sea", "Down Down Down","Are You the One?". I highly recommend their debut album "Beams" and if you are down with remixes then check out "Re-Sets".

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