Even 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 managed to catch Death From Above 1979 circa 2014, you likely saw a band more polished and just as ferocious as they were at the their heyday, and some of the energy seems to have crept into MSTRKRFT as well.
Listening to Operator today, however, one has to wonder if returning to such well-trod territory is really worth the time. The ten tracks here are all honest executions of a sound that was essentially perfected ten years ago; nostalgia alone can’t justify how little legitimately new material MSTRKRFT bring to the table. It’s a shame that *Operator *wasn’t MSTRKRFT's first album—had it been, the conversation around the band would probably be different than it is today. As it is, we have a decent album—probably MSTRKRFT’s best—but few compelling reasons to really get excited. That said, the distorted funk wizardry on “Runaway” is so damn fun you’re almost forced to take its groove at face value, which is probably all MSTRKRFT want from listeners anyhow.
