Pitchfork Forkcast: New Music: Hearts Revolution / Crystal Castles: "C.Y.O.A." / "Excuse Me" [MP3/Stream]

New Music: Hearts Revolution / Crystal Castles: "C.Y.O.A." / "Excuse Me" [MP3/Stream]

If ice cream be the food of love, play on. Boy-girl duo Hearts Revolution (pictured) made their entrance into the music scene with their buzzed-about Hearts Challenger ice cream truck, showing near hipster-friendly hotspots in Los Angeles and New York. On their just released, glow-in-the-dark split 7" with Crystal Castles, Hearts Revolution spout cheeky anti-war slogans over buzzy, distorted synths; if they were an ice cream flavor, they'd be pralines and electropunk. "C.Y.O.A." stands for "choose your own adventure": If you want to hear a clever "Revolution" reference, listen to their track now. If you want to learn what's on the flip, you're, um, reading the wrong paragraph.

MP3:> Hearts Revolution: "C.Y.O.A."

Crystal Castles' "Excuse Me" is more of the fucked-up 8-bit chaos that earned the Toronto duo Rising status here on Forkcast. The group's singer, Alice, yelps confrontational lyrics amid videogame bleeps, rapid metronomic beats, and icy eight-note bass. It's aggressive yet playful, using some of the tools of dance music to evoke a clattery basement-punk racket. I'm pretty sure Alice throws in the line, "They wanna play with my placenta," but we'll have to double-check. Good thing these two don't sell ice cream.