MSTRKRFT - Operator

Rating:

A mixed bag of sounds and noises that come together to form an album that's like no other out there.

Mixed MSTRs

Though they’ve been around for over ten years, Canadian duo MSTRKRFT are only now releasing their third album. ‘Operator’ see’s them aggressively synthesising their way through a mean set of tracks, each showing the characteristics of their creator. MSTRKRFT is made up of Jesse F Keeler (Death From Above 1979) and AI-P (aka Alex Puodziukas), Keeler’s DFA1979 have an aggressive and forceful sound that penetrates just with over about any mind and leaves you in a trance. This aspect is certainly found throughout ‘Operator’, with overbearing and forceful sounds that incorporate heavy electronic elements, AI-P brings in his touch to add in a dynamic that underlies everything.

‘Party Line’, the first glimpse into new material from the duo is one of the few tracks that actually features some form of human voice, while the rest lays in the instrumental territory. Foreboding, the voice of Ian Svenonius (Chain and The Gang), battles with the rest of the instrumentation to create a back and forth between them, each one yearning for your attention but you aren’t quite sure where to listen first. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

Throughout the sound goes from energised to downright terrifying at times, particularly on the track ‘Morning Of The Hunt’ where it gradually builds around this impending sense of doom brought forth by the intermittent strike of synthesiser. Finale ‘Go On Without Me’ is the most hardcore and just generally assaulting track that has incomprehensible screaming matched with more doom-laden electronic orchestration.

Overall it’s a very mixed bag of sounds and noises that come together to form an album that's like no other out there. It feels like it can get a bit lost amongst the chaos while formulating its final attack, worth a listen, if just to hear what an actual hunt would sound like if translated into aggressive electronic music. Steven Loftin