So, lately I haven't heard a lot of ups and or downs for TCM lately, and i decided to post this to allow the people to have their give and take on the crystal method. Honestly, i like their songs but they seem a lot more underground than the open-crowd stadium that the Chems have. My dad says that TCM is better than the Chemical Brothers, but, what's your opinion on them?

First LP was cool in ’97, but they went downhill from there.

Crystal Method blew up pretty big in the 90's with Vegas and there was some comparisons being made with the Chems during that time (not necessarily among the fans, but in general as electronic music in the late 90's was breaking in a big way in the US). Their Tweekend album (which I wasn't a huge fan of) experienced a rather abrupt short lived critical success. I kind of stopped paying close attention by the time Legion Of Boom came out but they did put out their Community Service mix albums which I found enjoyable at the time. A remember conversation from a long time ago where the fans of the previous albums weren't much into Legion of Boom, but I saw it more of a diversion where the Crystal Method could hone in on their production skills rather than put out an album of hits.

I could be wrong but I recall the Crystal Method being more into the aspects of production and their music was more of a springboard for them to tap into that aspect of their musical interests. They were in a documentary - I want to say it was Better Living Through Circuitry, but I honestly can't remember 100% - that showed them in a tiny basement, somewhere in a Southern California suburb, holed up with their gear making and producing music.

That said, my favorite album of theirs from the bunch, Vegas, doesn't seem to hold as much weight with me as it once did. There are some good songs on there that bring back some good memories and whatnot but I don't feel that album has aged all that well. Whether I think they are relevant is neither here nor there - I do think it's great that the Crystal Method have managed to endure after all this time. They still come up on conversation here, several years later, and I think that definitely counts for something.

The crystal method.
I call it 'beginners music'.
People who are first introduced to electronic music (chemical brother-ish music) like the crystal method.
Later, they upgrade to good music.

I don't want to offend anybody who likes the crystal method, so no offense.
I just think it's very simple music, in the wrong way of the word, because simple CAN be great and affective.

Not affective, i mean effective. Hehehe

Jeanie, on 22 December 2010 - 06:30 PM, said:

My first truly electronic LP was actually the chem's Surrender. Not that I consider it to be entry-level, I just think it was the first LP of theirs most the U.S. was exposed to. Afterwards, I began collecting their LPs and EPs (digitally) and turned to some of the other artists similar to their style. TCM happened to be the next one. Vegas is by far my favorite of theirs, probably because it is simple in a way. Their sound is mainly a Nord Lead and Juno with a drum machine. But it's the way they could take something so simple and turn it into something complex. I was highly disappointed with Tweekend and Legion of Boom because Tweekend had too much of a dark feel to it, and Legion of Boom seemed too simple for me. And for them to wait so long and release Divided By Night (which is the worst in my opinion) I think they started very high and went steadily downhill. With the Chemical Brothers, I feel that their style has taken on so many other genres, it's hard not to relate to it somehow.

I've only listened to Vegas, but I can tell you: if that's the summit of their career, I doubt I'd like the rest. Not that it's bad, but it's just very... generic. Action movie trailers have pretty much stolen their style from them, so maybe I was just in the wrong time to hear them, but honestly I doubt I'd have liked it much either way.
There are some tracks off there that I really like, though. Comin' Back is awesome.


And of course, as a DJ Hero fan, it's pretty much mandatory that I listen to Busy Child.

I only listened to TCM after googling the Brothers ages ago and their name came up on some lists of similar music. So I checked them out. I haven't listened to their music a lot, when I do I like a few tracks here and there, but not all. Being pretty new to the whole electronic music genre I don't have a huge list of favorites so I would probably fit them in my top 25... maybe.

I read a review of TCM latest album in dutch music magazine OOR. They said that they wondered if the Chemical Brothers would be making those rockin beats like the Crystal Method ever again. And that's just not noticing what's the Bros. are doing. These are probably the same people that say "the Chems should be making an album like Dig your own hole" narrow minded people. I like the quote from Ed years ago: "People who put us in the Big Beat genre are just not listening to what we're doing" (or something like that, I think it's on the singles dvd). And he was talking about 20th century sky EP.
I like Vegas but later albums don't do it for me. That single Come back clean is just horrible. I've seem them live twice back in the 90's (I sound old) and those shows were rocking. But then again so were Proppelheads and Bentley rhythm ace and so many other bands who don't excist anymore. The main reason The Crystal Method is still relevant is that no other band in the US is making beats on that level. And praise The Crystal Method for still doing it.

I like Born too slow.

Just to throw this out there - here are a couple of major ad spots using the Crystal Method (these ads aired quite frequently way back when)

Joslyn, on 22 December 2010 - 11:37 PM, said:

It's actually 14th Century Sky EP.

I thought that TCM was better than the Chems at one point, but Further sure convinced me otherwise! Does anyone like the deluxe edition of Vegas? Because i enjoyed listening to the deluxe version of Busy Child, the song gets right to the point instead of being too anticipating to lose interest.

whirlygirl, on 23 December 2010 - 12:23 AM, said:

High Roller seems like it's overused these days. I've seen two different car commercials and one for Victoria's Secret.

weirdochristian, on 22 December 2010 - 08:57 PM, said:

Vitoria's Secret???!!!!! I knew the car commercials, but how in the hell does that song correlate to BREASTS AND BRAS!

And Busy Child to pants...

their latest (?) album divided by night has some pretty decent tracks on it. i saw it for 3.49 so i couldn't resist checking it out. i love the titletrack, downtempo beat, synth bass, bleeps and a vocoder:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqHrSCjfc4w

Divided by Night was my second favorite, falling short to of course Vegas. Anyone got a favorite or least favorite in TCM?

I enjoyed Vegas in '97 and still find it enjoyable. It is a solid, balanced album; it's not easy to convey a theme or a concept with mostly instrumentals, but they accomplished it brilliantly. It was a particularly impressive release in the genre considering it came from this side of the Atlantic. Regarding the Anniversary release with the remixes, most of them are okay but none of them have the impact of the originals. I think some of the remixer choices were a little strange and I would have much preferred artists like The Prodigy or The Chemical Brothers take a modern stab at the tracks from Vegas. Having the album remixed by TCM's contemporaries of the time would have been very cool.

I found everything after Vegas to be somewhat disappointing, which each release a little less cutting edge and a little more commercial than its predecessor. I give TCM some credit for finding their own path, but I don't like the direction they chose. I do like a couple tracks here and there (PHD and Born Too Slow in particular) and I enjoy some of their older remixes. I also like some of the tracks from their London soundtrack, but again, Vegas is their only outing worth listening to from start to finish.

I keep giving their new work a chance, but I set my expectations low and was somehow still disappointed with their last outing.

one of my favorites was Born Too Slow, as well as Roll It Up. The two usual candidates for their tours is Trip Like I Do and Busy Child and I like them too. My most dissapointed album was Legion of Boom, it wasn't so riveting and exciting as the rest.