Old Rhythms Cut New

Crystal Fighters were doing something genuinely strange around 2011—threading Basque txalaparta percussion into synth-pop and making it feel less like a world-music experiment and more like something that had always belonged on a dancefloor. "Champion Sound" was one of their more direct moments, less folk-ritual and more pure propulsion, but the underlying weirdness was still there if you listened for it. Their debut Star of Love had been out about a year and they were still riding whatever current that record had generated. I remember thinking they’d either break through properly or quietly vanish. They mostly did the latter, which still bothers me a little.