MSTRKRFT Live in Atlanta at
Opera part 3 free bacardi blive show 7/3/2009. MSTRKRFT (pronounced "Master-craft") is an electronic music group from
Toronto (
The Beaches),
Ontario, Canada who are signed to
Last Gang Records. The group was started in
2005 by
Jesse F. Keeler formerly of
Death from Above 1979 and Al-P (
Alex Puodziukas) formerly of the
Mississauga electropop group
Girlsareshort.[
1][2][3] Al-P was also the producer for
Death from Above 1979s
album You're a Woman, I'm a
Machine as well as several of (
Jesse's former band)
Black Cat#13's records. The duo has been close friends, as well as work partners, for a long time.[4] MSTRKRFT also produced
Die Mannequin's first EP,
How to Kill, and
Magneta Lane's second LP,
Dancing With Daggers.[5] MSTRKRFT have been commissioned to remix songs by such artists as
Justice,
Bloc Party,
Metric,
Wolfmother,[6]
Annie and
The Kills.[7] Their first single was "
Easy Love", released in
2006. They released their second single, "
Work On You", on July 6. In contrast to the "Easy Love" music video, "Work On You" featured animated robots similar to those found in classic cartoons (see: Voltron,
Transformers ). Although
The Looks is MSTRKRFT's first album featuring original content, the band has created remixes from a variety of other artists ranging from
Buck 65 to The Kills to Jesse F. Keeler's own band, Death from Above 1979. MSTRKRFT released their first LP, The Looks, on July 18,
2006 in the United States and
February 2,
2007 in
Britain. Keeler and Al-P told
Eye Weekly weeks before the release of The Looks, that as the album was being finished, the planning stages for a follow-up record had already begun. Describing the upcoming album's new direction, Al-P said that the album would be "darker, underground disco and house with elements of
American rock music." The "2007" version of their song "
Street Justice" was also released as a single. On the band's website message board, Keeler mentioned they were also working on a compilation album composed of their remixed tracks. Street Justice was also featured on the
THQ action game,
Saints Row 2.
Neon Knights was also featured on
Need For Speed:
Pro Street, and their remix for Justices'
D.A.N.C.E. was featured on the movie "
Meet The Spartans". Their song "
Paris" was featured in a 2006 commercial for the online music store
URGE. In 2007 MSTRKRFT appeared at the
WEMF World Electronic Music Festival.
In September 2007 MSTRKRFT performed at an
Australian spring music festival "
Parklife" in
Brisbane. They performed their remix of the song "
Woman" from
Modular label mates Wolfmother.
Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother appeared on stage and sang live while MSTRKRFT performed the remix. In 2008 through Obeygiant.com released a mix cd with
Z-Trip. In conjunction with this CD,
Obey offered the
Art work print, entitled Soundclash of the
Titans. On May 24, 2008 MSTRKRFT were featured on the famous
BBC Radio 1 show,
The Essential Mix. MSTRKRFT later performed at the 2008
Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, which included a diverse group of artists ranging from
Metallica to
Jack Johnson. On March 17, 2009, MSTRKRFT released their second LP,
Fist of God. All songs were written by Jesse F. Keeler and Al-P.
Initial critical response has been average at best, with major periodicals
Spin,
Rolling Stone, and
Blender giving the album less-than-stellar reviews. The album features guest appearances by
John Legend,
E-40,
N.O.R.E., and
Lil' Mo, among others. MSTRKRFT's latest live setup consists of a
Pioneer DJM-800 mixer and 2 Pioneer CDJ-1000MK3 CD Turntables controlling
Serato Scratch Live on a
Black Apple Macbook. They also use an
AKAI MPC-500,
Roland MC-202, and a Pioneer EFX-1000 for added effects during their sets
. In the studio Jesse and Al use
Digidesign Pro Tools mixing software along with a complement of hardware synthesizers and drum machines such as the
Roland SH101, the
Sequential Circuits Prophet 600, the
Roland TR-909 which they mainly use to "trigger older synths" and TR-707, the
Moog Voyager, the
Roland MKS-80, and the
Korg MS-20.
- published: 04 Jul 2009
- views: 2769