Album: Crystal Castles, Crystal Castles (Fiction)

Like earlier electro-punk art-terrorist duo Suicide, Crystal Castles have opted to use just the band name, for the second time, as the title of their second album.

It's far from the only aspect they share with Suicide, with songs such as "Empathy", "Suffocation" and the single "Celestica" relying on the alliance of Alice Glass's sensuous vocal murmurs with the waspish synth buzzes and undulating electronic stutters from which Ethan Kath sculpts the electropop grooves. The effect can be eerily seductive, with Glass pleading: "When it's cold outside, hold me tight, hold me" through "Celestica"; but elsewhere, they veer sharply from such comforts: "Fainting Spells" is a brutalist collage of sonic extremity, while the overdriven synth riff and vocal squawk of "Doe Deer" echoes the antagonistic brevity of Atari Teenage Riot.

Download this: Celestica; Empathy; Suffocation