While there’s certainly positives and negatives to the album leak phenomena, I can’t deny how excited I get when an album leaks that I’ve been anticipating hearing for months. One of the leaks that had me clicking around in a download fury was Crystal Castles‘ new LP “II”. I managed to catch the band on their first tour at the now closed Real Bar in Tempe back in 2007 and totally fell in love with them. The band’s mishmash of electronic music, video game samples, and noisy punk has garnered attention from a very diverse set of fans and this album has at least a few tracks for all of us. It starts off noisy and raw, but can also be very delicate and poppy. Regardless of style, each song is a winner.

Another benefit of an album leaking before the release date is getting a bunch of remixes before it hits shelves. I grabbed a couple of the early remixes for this LP to post here, though there are sure to be at least 1,456,437 remixes of the songs on this LP before year end. I’m seeing a repeat of the barrage of Phoenix remixes that 2009 had to offer. These two happen to be for two of my favorite tracks from the album and one of them is by Arizona’s very own LightsoverLA. “CCII” is already available for purchase on iTunes thanks to a release date that was pushed forward because of said leak. Go and buy it!

MP3: Crystal Castles – Celestica (Clockwork Remix)
MP3: Crystal Castles – Vietnam (LightsoverLA Remix)