There's a moment on Crystal Castles' self-titled debut, during the breakdown of the snarling electro-goth anthem "Love and Caring," when the 8-bit beats and beeps shift suddenly from the song's rigid, robotic grid. Alice Glass, genuinely confused, asks, "What the fuck is this? Oh, it's the bass." They kept that take.

Crystal Castles, you see, really do not give a fuck. The Toronto duo started in 2005 as something between a joke and an accident. Now, they're opening for Nine Inch Nails. In between, they may have stolen a couple beats from some chiptune producers and misappropriated the visual art of Trevor Brown, but they've also played some searing, stroboscopic live shows and released a string of 7-inches and blog hits, many of which are collected here (in fact, most of the album dates back to 2005 or 2006), including the one with lyrics about an "AIDS robot" ("Xxzxcuzx Me").

"Alice Practice," the band's first "accidental" creation, is a mic check of Glass's laid over a Casio beat and a flurry of Atari laser blasts. "Untrust Us" splays DFA '79's "Dead Womb" beyond all recognition, transforming its vocal into ghostly Knife-like dance pop. Throughout Crystal Castles, the band benefit from such connections, sampling with permission from not only buddies DFA '79 but also liberally borrowing a vocal from Van She on "Vanished" and remixing HEALTH on the infectious "Crimewave." The band also sample, presumably without permission, from Grandmaster Flash and Drinking Electricity on the dreamy "Magic Spells" and the bubblegum roller-rink electro of "Good Time."

But all of these sources blend seamlessly into Crystal Castles' sound, which oscillates from repetitive techno punk to blissy pocket-calculator pop. Half of the tracks are smeared with Glass's black-eyelinered shrieking; the rest are left instrumental or else rely on other vocal samples. And for all the flip attitude and kitschy electronics, Crystal Castles sound seriously fierce.

Crystal Castles play Sat June 7, Chop Suey, 9 pm, $10, all ages. With dd/mm/yyyy, David Wolf, Reflex.

Perchance recommendedrecommendedrecommendedrecommended

Mayhaps recommendedrecommendedrecommended

Possibly recommendedrecommended

Maybe recommended