Airiel — “Sugar Crystals” — The Battle Of Sealand
I’m back in the office after a week on the beach in Mexico, and our Christmas gift of layoffs and across-the-board pay cuts has just kicked in, but “Sugar Crystals,” a bit of caffeine-rush nugazer fluttering, is just the thing to blow away the gloom and cobwebs. Scenemaestro Ulrich Schnauss steps in to do some programming for the typically heavy band, and this thing, in the German’s busy-ass hands, is like a mashup of itself. The Aphex Twin-aping beat is only barely fused to the messier guitar palette, and Airiel wisely dispense with words come hooktime, opting for the soaring, genre-approved aaahs passed down from rock’s first forgetful lyricists. If I tell you I’ve listened to it ten times today, it’s because I’m hesitant to tell you the number is a little closer to twenty. Keeps me working, anyway.
