Mstrkrft - Operator - [Vinyl]

Review Jesse F. Keeler & Al-P wanted to make a techno record with a punk aesthetic the result is chaotic and hard-hitting...and it's an exciting direction. --DIYMaybe it's just a Summer thing but it seems now even committed electronic noiseniks are turning mellow. Two weeks ago, NYC provocateurs Black Dice shared their first new tune in four years,the eccentric but undeniably groovy Big Deal.Last week, the band's Eric Copeland released Black Bubblegum, easily his poppiest solo set yet. And Justice French dons of the hugely distorted, disco-house banger have just dropped their first track in five years, an easy-rolling take on Chic's Mirror Ball Funk.However, for Toronto outfit MSTRKRFT it's very much in-your-face business as usual as you might expect of a record that takes as its theme the military's use of the term operator to distance personnel from their actions. The electronic duo's first LP in five years, it's driven by strutting beats, it's nail-on-blackboard anxiety at times pumped to a nightmarish intensity, heightened by nuclear-warning shrieks and blasts of white noise. It's also very groovy.However dark and claustrophobic, MSTRKRFT are fundamentally a dance act, so alongside the panic-stricken Priceless and Go On Without Me a grindcore assault in which Converge singer Jacob Bannon vomits up his very soul sits the fizzy-pop euphoria of Runaway and the hyperventilating rush of Death In The Gulf Stream.MSTRKRFT aren't crashing through any creative boundaries here but still, a round of applause for tunes that can still shift booty with such dirty noise. --Metro , 4/5 reviewEven before Death from Above 1979 went nuclear in 2006, leaving behind a miasma of ringing ears and beer-stained v-necks, MSTRKRFT had already formed with hopes of producing even sexier results. Bassist/keyboardist Jesse F. Keeler and producer Alex Puodziukas (a.k.a. Al-P, who also manned the boards for You're a Woman, I'm a Machine) chose a glossy, vocoder-heavy approach to electro-house years before bloghouse would go mainstream. MSTRKRFT was an immediate fixture on the festival circuit, meshing well with arena-ready acts like Steve Aoki and the Ed Banger crew. A decade later, however, the landscape has changed: EDM is now the music of the masses and DFA1979 have reunited, releasing a new record. MSTRKRFT, for their part, seem destined to return to their status as a side project.Operator, the duo's first album since 2009's Fist of God, fits right alongside Death from Above 1979's The Physical World as a return to the sounds of the mid and early 00s, embracing distorted electro-punk and eschewing the poppier sensibilities of their second LP.Rather than include another laundry list of guests like those on Fist of God, Operator sounds like the work of two guys united by a singular vision.(That there are no John Legend or E-40 features on the record is ultimately for the best.)When MSTRKRFT first arose dude from Death From Above doing an electronic record many assumed the project would sound something like Romance Bloody Romance, the DFA1979 remix album, which featured Justice and MSTRKRFT themselves.Operator plays like a mea culpa to fans who were disappointed that MSTRKRFT didn't go in that direction to begin with: more than any other MSTRKRFT release, Operator sounds like the work of a band one with punk DNA coursing through its army of analog synths. The new record's stripped-down take is clear from the first single, Little Red Hen, whose glitched-out tones evoke Contra if it were fed Adderall instead of quarters. More aggressive is album closer Go on Without Me, which thunders and throbs like it belongs inside the S&M club from The Matrix.Operator also looks to 90s acts like the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy for inspiration on tracks like Party Line and Wrong Glass Sir. Like those groups, whose driving, purposefully unsubtle production was equally suited to dancing or moshing, Operator trades pop accessibility for pure momentum. If you man

Mstrkrft - Operator - [Vinyl]

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