I was writing a headline for a piece on Crystal Castles in the current issue of Uncut and, after reading the feature a few times, ended up with this: “Scars. Skulls. Disease. Videogame blips. From Canada!”

In retrospect, I’m not entirely convinced it was the best way to sell the provocative charms of this tremendously hip Toronto duo. Nevertheless, it sums up fairly accurately their schtick: a great skree of attitudinal electronic noise, cut through with nagging melodies and punctuated by the faintly gothic poetry of Alice Glass.

At this point, you might conceivably be horrified by the whole concept. But Crystal Castles are actually an invigorating bunch who deserve the attention of an audience way beyond the Hoxton militia. . . The sort of audience, in fact, that they should draw to the sylvan Sunrise Arena at Latitude, where they’ll be headlining on the opening night. It could just be one of the surprise hits of the whole festival. . .