by Ollie Rankine

Although Death From Above 1979 fans were left in a state of neglect after Canadian duo, Sebastien Grainger and Jesse Keeler parted company in 2006, the blow was somewhat supressed by Keeler’s already brewing side project with Alex Puodziukas, MSTRKRFT (pronounced ‘Master-Craft’) whose electro-punk demeanour struck upon similar a tone. Ten years down the line and despite DFA1979’s reformation with the release of their second 2014 album, The Physical World, MSTRKRFT has long proven its worth as more than just a one-off artist experimentation with recent third album, OPERATOR – its first in seven years. This time deciding to ditch the collaborators that have often featured on previous records, MSTRKRFT return in familiarly chaotic and abrasive style in what is their most sonically fierce and unchanging work to date.

From unrelenting, industrially charged beats to the barrage of melodically incoherent bursts of pure noise, OPERATOR is pretty much a savage ear bombardment from start to finish with very little chance to catch one’s breath. Everyone has their own tales of finding themselves in a dingy, basement nightclub at 4 o’clock in the morning whilst dancing next to some guy who’s jaw looks like it’s about to fall off. Whilst listening to a repeatedly regaled story of this nature, the sound of OPERATOR is often the kind of music that regularly comes to mind. Leaving it no chance of even being remotely described as an “easy listen”, its biggest downfall is ultimately its lack of diversity, with each song merging mercilessly into the next. Being perhaps a welcome kick of nostalgia for many serial mid-00s ravers, OPERATOR will unfortunately only tweak the strings for a small audience of pill poppers. (6/10)

Listen to OPERATOR here via Spotify, and tell us what you think below!