MSTRKRFT ‘Fist Of God’
March 13, 2009 Posted by admin at 4:50 pm
“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.