Crystal Castles Made Beauty Hurt

Alice Glass’s voice—crystalline, almost innocent—pushed through walls of distorted synths that sounded like machinery breaking in a cathedral. You’d hear a track and it felt like watching something fragile get destroyed in real time, which was the whole point. There’s something specific about electronic music that commits to harshness instead of hiding behind production, and they never apologized for it. Not many bands made discomfort feel this necessary.