Today’s recipe is as delicious as it is cool. Which is to say this is an easy, flavorful dish you’ll definitely want to try for yourself. I can think of nothing that says both “awesome”” and “modern” cuisine better than seared ahi tuna seasoned with Hawaiian sea salts and accompanied by a lime spiked heirloom bean salad. Clean, fresh ingredients. Seared almost-raw ahi that would have terrified your grandparents, but rarely raises eyebrows today. Did I mention the Hawaiian sea salts? Well worth your dime if you can find them in the store. Oh, and earthy, tasty heirloom beans mixed into fresh greens. This recipe is so “now.” So for a hip, modern pairing I turned to Toronto based Crystal Castles‘ self-titled debut album. Crystal Castles is a grimy indie electronic dance album that just feels equally fresh, modern and cool.
Crystal Castles is the name adopted by Canadian duo Ethan Kass (instrumentation and production) and Alice Glass (vocals). The name is in reference to She-Ra’s fortress (you remember She-Ra, right? From He-Man.). The album bulges and recedes as it alternates between jaggedly intricate electro and 80’s inspired dance punk. It opens with the hyper electro-anthem “Untrust Us” which features unintelligible, but warmly tonal vocal snatches mixed with crisp, upbeat synth. Still, Kass and Glass show they aren’t afraid to get scuzzy and grimy on tracks like “Alice Practice” and “XXzxcuzx Me” which both sound somewhat like listening to a pixelated female vocalist standing in the middle of a heated battlefield in a world modeled after 80’s era Atari video games. The track “Courtship Dating” is a personal favorite, so understand that it is better than it may sound when I suggest that it can be imagined as a Timbaland produced soundtrack to a not-so-scary haunted disco party. Other highlights include the more straight-forward “Vanished,” the 16-bit fight song “1991,” and the cut “Knights.” Pick up the album from iTunes or Insound.
Crystal Castles – Untrust Us
Crystal Castles – 1991
Head back to eating/sf to read today’s fantastic seared ahi recipe(and lime-spiked heirloom bean salad)!
