2009 was a big year for etcetc: Lost Valentinos, Fever Ray,  Two Door Cinema Club, autoKratz, Duck Sauce, Cassius, Beni, Datarock, Jenny Wilson, MSTRKRFT, Jump Jump Dance Dance…we could go on. Now that it’s time to vote in the Triple J Hottest 100, may we present our extremely biased list of the top songs of ‘09:

Star crossed lovers? Check!
$2 store? Check!
Pinatas? Check!

MSTRKRFT’s latest single Heartbreaker is a quintessential tale of lost love. It also just happens to be one of the best songs you’ll hear all year. And it features the vocals of US R&B powerhouse John Legend. Watch the video now:

MSTRKRFT “Heartbreaker” from Dim Mak on Vimeo.

Here’s a clip of the boys performing the track on Letterman with John Legend:

MSTRKRFT

Their 2006 debut, The Looks, established a genre-defying sound as appealing to clubs as it was to mosh pits.

“I think we approach it differently because we’re not coming from a strictly dance background” says one half of the band, Jesse F. Keeler, whose former punk outfit, the now defunct Death from Above 1979, were produced by MSTRKRFT’s other half Al-P.

Now signed to Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak label, MSTRKRFT’s indie-dance credentials are matched only by the ridiculously diverse list of artists that they’ve collaborated with and remixed. From Nine Inch Nails to Wolfmother to Usher to The Kills.

New album Fist of God, features John Legend, Ghostface Killah of the legendary Wu Tang Clan, Isis, Lil’ Mo, Freeway and more.

The first single, ode-to-hedonism Bounce featuring US rapper N.O.R.E. has brutally pounded dance-floors everywhere. And the best is yet to come.

Fist of God is out 24 April on etcetc.

Tracklisting:

1. It Ain’t Love (feat. Lil’ Mo)
2. 1000 Cigarettes
3. Bounce (feat. Nore & Isis)
4. Vuvuvu
5. Heartbreaker
6. Fist Of God
7. So Deep (feat. Jahmal of The Carps)
8. Click Click (feat. E-40)
9. Word Up (feat. Ghostface Killah)
10. Breakaway (feat. Jahmal of The Carps)
11. 1000 Cigarettes (feat. Freeway) (Bonus)

“We tried to make ‘festival weapons’ so when we play them it’s like throwing a million hatchets in to the audience”

- Jesse F. Keeler, MSTRKRFT

Mysterious Toronto duo MSTRKRFT (pronounced ‘Master craft’) is the project of puck rocker Jesse F. Keeler and studio wizard Al-P, two luminaries of the Canadian music scene who in 2004 turned their talents towards dance floors after years of rocking punk mosh-pits.

The pair have been collaborating on and off since 1998, but it wasn’t until 2004 that the two spent a lot of time in the studio together, after Jesse enlisted AL-P to record his new band, Death From Above 1979. When DFA 1979 disbanded in 2006, Jesse and Al-P had already decided to pour all their creative energy into their MSRTKRFT project and released debut collaborative album The Looks in 2006 (in Australia on Modular Records). An instant runaway success in clubs and on radio, MSTRKRFT’s mixing of rock and dance with equal abandon and precision placed them at the forefront of electronic production and proved what no one thought was possible – that two punk kids could take on the dance music world and come out on top.

For their sophomore album Fist Of God, MSTRKRFT have signed with etcetc through exclusive license with Dim Mak Records. With guest appearances from r’b'n superstar John Legend, Missy Elliot protegee  Lil Mo, and notorious hip hop heads E-40 and Ghostface Killah, and combining the progressive electronica of Daft Punk and Justice with the pop sensibilities of Pnau,  MSTRKRFT have delivered one of the best cross-over dance records of 2009.

Bounce featuring N.O.R.E.,  the lead single from Fist Of God, is out now with remixes from A-Trak, The Bloody Beetroots and Felix Cartal.

Fist Of God is out April 10 on iTunes, and April 24 physically through etcetc, via Universal Music Australia.