Crystal Fighters

Wikipedia:

Crystal Fighters are a British/Spanish electronic band who formed in London, UK in 2007. Their debut album Star of Love was released on 4 October 2010 in the UK and will be released in the US through Atlantic Records in April 2012. The band are well known for their energetic, engaging live performances and for their unique approach to mixing culturally specific influences and instruments with a range of musical genres.

Career

Formation and early years

‘Crystal Fighters' are Sebastian Pringle (lead vocals, guitar), Gilbert Vierich (electronics, guitars, txalaparta, percussion) and Graham Dickson (guitar/ txalaparta), with Laure Stockley and Mimi Borrelli (vocals).

Pringle and Vierich were old friends, while Vierich and Dickson met through various parties before Vierich "forced [Graham] to move to London and start to make music." The three then began making music under various guises before being joined by Stockley and Borrelli. The band now play with a live drummer, Andrea Marongiu.

The group took their name ‘Crystal Fighters’ from an unfinished opera which Stockley’s grandfather had penned during his final months of insanity. Stockley came across the manuscript while clearing out the reclusive old man’s remote home in the Basque countryside. She quickly became obsessed by the intriguing scrawls within it and shared it with the others. Captivated by its seemingly prophetic contents, the band took on the name and formed in an attempt to expand upon the wild and deranged spirit of the old man’s writings. "We started writing music around the book and learning about Basque culture and how the music and history has evolved. From there we decided we wanted to finish the opera and do a live show that would get across some of the amazing, crazy...stuff that was in this book. So we crafted this live show around the book and wrote new music based on its directions and looking at Basque music as a whole." explains Vierich.

Instruments and Style

Describing their style as "fast, mesmeric and passionate", the band play both electric and acoustic guitars, synths, drums, and incorporate traditional Basque instruments into their music. Many of their songs use a txalaparta, a wooden xylophone-like percussion instrument played by two people standing face-to-face. They also use the danbolin (a rope-tuned snare drum), and the txistu (a Basque pipe whistle).

Crystal Fighters’ style is a fusion of genres – fast progressive dance music joined by the melodies and dances of traditional Basque folk, alongside synthesisers, bass-driven wonk-funk, with beats fuelled by early 1980s Spanish punk and experimental electronica from bands such as Aviador Dro, Las Vulpes and Dulce Venganza. Basque music informs much of their songwriting: the riff on ‘Champion Sound’ is lifted from the Basque folk piece ‘Sagar Dantza’ and ‘In The Summer’ draws upon music heard at the Carnival of Lantz in Navarroa. Paul Lester, of The Guardian has described their style as "what would happen if you went back 100 years, dropped a load of recording equipment into a remote Basque village and left the villagers, steeped in folk music, to their own devices."

A melting pot of cultural, musical and stylistic influences, Crystal Fighters use eclectic reference points to create their unique genre of music, stating "we consider ourselves to be a mixture of folk, electro, punk, techno, dubstep and Spanish pop. We are kind of like the sound that would be created if The Velvet Underground and The Gipsy Kings were to travel back in time to the Pyrenees, 1980, and make a record with Skream, Madlib and Luciano on production."

Their unique style has caused NME to comment that "Crystal Fighters have stood out as one of the most interesting prospects by a mile – something genuinely new sounding." while Virgin Music describe the band's output as suitable for "the trans-continental, scene-crossing, cultural explorer".

Kitsuné years

In 2008, popular music-website Palms Out Sounds picked up the track ‘I Love London’ and news of the band's unique sound began to spread. This was followed by two single releases through record label Kitsuné in 2009. "[We] sent ‘Xtatic Truth’ [to Kitsuné] and immediately they came back to us and said they loved it and wanted to put it out and put it on the compilation. Then we suggested they listened to a couple of other songs like ‘I Love London’ and they thought that was great too." 'I Love London' then went on to be Mixmag's number 91 song of 2008.

In 2009, the band also recorded and made a video for 'Robot Restroom' with Tom Neville and Henry Benett although it was never released.

The group were chosen as Diesel U Music’s Spanish representatives, and launched MySpace Music in the UK, one of 2009’s most anticipated media events, and went on to be listed as number 8 in New Band Day's 'Best New Bands 2010' Awards.

Star of Love album

Star of Love is the name of the first album by Crystal Fighters. It was released to critical acclaim in the UK on 4 October 2010 via the band’s own label Zirkulo. In Europe, the album is licensed to PIAS. In Australia, the album was released via Liberator Music, and the band have signed with Atlantic Records in the US who will release Star of Love in April 2012.

The BBC called it an "assured, sporadically thrilling first shot" while Artrocker said "this lot really are a rare talent that you’d be foolish to ignore." Mojo Magazine gave the album 4 out of 5, stating "there’s a thrilling carnival atmosphere to Star of Love...unique and highly moreish". The Fly called it "a record as high in energy and delightfully messy as their now notorious live performances"

Of the recording process, Pringle states, "we decided to spend a fair bit of time making sure it was all in place, that we were happy with how everything sounded, primarily making sure the songs somehow linked in with one another even though there's a slew of mad genres going on within the record. We spent a fair bit of time in the studio, having written most of it at home in our warehouse, the three of us together, before taking it to the studio to mix it properly." Written and produced by Crystal Fighters, "Star of Love" presents the unique focus and the combined talents of the band. "It’s absolutely collaborative... we all have our strengths within the band but because it’s all written pretty much in one room in Hackney, it all gets vetted by each other... there’s a lot of tooing and froing of opinions and a collaborative relationship going on at all points of the process."

The collection of songs explore the themes in singer Stockley's grandfather's writings. Themes include the unfathomable mystery of the universe, the turbulent journey towards being at peace with death, the triumph of love, and the omnipotence of the sun. "Star Of Love" is actually a backronym for SOL, the Spanish word for "sun". Each song tells a story, both sonically and aurally, and each story has its cryptic connections with the dark and tormented world of the original opera. "[Laure's Grandfather's] themes are grand, therefore in our songs we try to stick to them. Plus in the same way he is addressing things in this kind of crazed emotional and passionate way, and portraying the larger themes of life, we are continuing to follow on from that."

Singles released from the album include "I Love London", "Xtatic Truth" and "In The Summer", with the single "Plage" being used to soundtrack various commercials and going on to obtain gold sales status in Holland. 3 of the album's singles were selected as a 'Record of the Week' by BBC Radio 1.

For the album's US release on Atlantic Records, the band included new songs "Fiesta" and "Earth Island".

Live

Initially the band's live shows took the format of a musical opera to convey the story of each song and bring about evocative reactions from their audiences through the vehicle of performance art, "Our first show had props including two bottles of tequila, txalapartas (a traditional Basque instrument), signs explaining the plot of the opera, and loads of dramatic stage directions all to a soundtrack of wonky bass, latin percussion and enormous passionate hooks. It was chaotic and we've been trying to bring that sort of energy to every show since." Now even with the live facets stripped down, their reputation as one of the UK’s most forward-thinking, carnage-inducing live acts is continuing to build and build. The band’s dramatic and artful shows have become somewhat legendary with Mixmag proclaiming them to have "the single most exciting show in dance music." Dazed & Confused has said "there is nothing more alive or energetic than Crystal Fighters". The band describe the show as, "Maybe not an opera in scale, but visually at least, and with the aid of a live drummer and vocalist, the drama can only increase...making the songs as powerful as possible will become our main influence."

The band are reputed for their energetic and engaging live performances, and in the last two years have played over 100 shows across 15 countries. 2010 saw the band play all the top festivals including Glastonbury, Bestival, V Festival, Leeds Festival, Creamfields, Lovebox, Secret Garden Party and Isle of Wight Festival, and at more intimate gigs including one in Manchester.

Worldwide, they played SXSW, StereoSonic (Australia), Eurosonic, C/O Pop (Germany), Creamfelds Spain, Lowlands (Holland), Hurricane Festival & Southside Festival (Germany), Suprette (Switzerland), Emmaboda (Sweden), Parklife (Australia), Electric Picnic (Ireland), Frequency (Austria) and Bergenfest, with Australia's The Vine praising the band's stage show; "Interspersing [traditional Basque] instruments amongst the synths, electric and acoustic guitars, drums and ukuleles makes for pure spectacle and an unforgettable set of musicianship and performance."

Their knack for fusing genres has garnered them a reputation for thrilling and involving live shows, of which Pringle explains; "With dance music you can go and see a dj who is in a booth, so you dance all night and just watch him there kind of doing nothing, which obviously can be amazing. But if you have a live performance where you are playing the same kind of music, the whole experience then changes into a rock show and so much more besides, so we’re trying to make people experience dance music in a new way." This reputation has led to the band being awarded the accolade of "a definite band to watch during the summer festival season" by numerous publications, including The Guardian, Artrocker and Skiddle.

Crystal Fighters supported Foals on their UK tour in November 2010 as well as headlining their own UK tour in October of the same year.

In October 2011, the band embarked upon a sold out UK headline tour, before heading to Europe in November.

Crystal Fighters played numerous shows at Austin's SXSW festival in March 2012 before setting off on a US tour, taking in cities such as Miami, San Francisco, LA and a sold out show at New York's Glasslands.

TV & Film

Crystal Fighters performed ‘Champion Sound’ and ‘Xtatic Truth’ on Later With Jools Holland in October 2010. Mimi is seen sitting on the floor during the performances but did not sing.

They appeared on Channel 4’s ‘Abbey Road Debuts', a new music programme from the producers of ‘Live from Abbey Road’ which began in April 2011.

Two songs from the Star Of Love album have featured in hit TV series Skins. 'Xtatic Truth' featured in Episode 7, Series 4 during the party scene and 'With You' in Episode 3 of Series 5 when Mini sees Nick sleeping next to Liv. 'I Do This Everyday' was featured on the Skins advert in February 2011.

The Delta Heavy remix of ‘I Love London’ was featured on the soundtrack to the film 'Harry Brown', starring Michael Caine.

They were featured on a small documentary "4Play: Crystal Fighters", Which aired on Friday, 25 Feb 2011 on Channel 4.

Their track "Plage" was used on the 2011 television commercials for both Matalan and Target. Also in 2011, a portion of their song "Follow" was used in the U.S. Puma Shoes commercial "Pumagility".

A portion of their track "At Home" is being used in Portugal and Spain in a History Channel advert since the start of 2012.

The band have released videos for singles "Xtatic Truth", "I Love London", "At Home", "Follow/Swallow", "In The Summer", "Plage" and "Champion Sound" and in September 2011, unveiled a series of acoustic versions of the album's tracks, that were filmed and recorded in autumnal woodland. The band have also filmed sessions for the likes of Spotify, MySpace, All Saints Basement Sessions and Kick Kick Snare.