The Crystal Method

About The Crystal Method

Breakbeat kings The Crystal Method make techno music for arenas. The LA via Las Vegas duo the club-savvy Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland began recording in a basement they dubbed "the bomb shelter." The name would prove apt as The Crystal Method's tweaked-out singles became huge hits during the 90's "electronica" boom. Distinguishing themselves from their electronic piers like sample-kings The Chemical Brothers and hardcore The Prodigy, Crystal Method employed an amped up rock sensibility, yielding dance tracks that left clubbers breathless and begging for more. Their debut album Vegas was a raver smash, and the singles "Trip Like I Do," "Busy Child" and "Keep Comin' Back" were full of shrill sirens, hard beats and gritty buzz effects. The band also garnered attention by being one of the first bands to score a full videogame soundtrack, the druggy Playstation cult favorite N20. Given the game's trippy visuals and lightening fast gameplay, it was an obvious collaboration. 2001's Tweekend and 2004's Legion of Boom were both solid discs of pulsing, guitar-inflected techno and The Crystal Method have also developed a reputation as the go-to band for movie soundtracks. Their cuts are always the perfect accompaniment for stylish action scenes or adrenaline fueled getaways and The Crystal Method can be heard in Gone In Sixty Seconds, Blade II, Zoolander, XXX, The Replacement Killers and Spawn, among others. The Crystal Method have always winkingly played down questions over their name's relation to the drug crystal meth, claiming Crystal was actually the name of a girl they knew.