Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
This band has no press
Discography
The Looks (2006)
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Theres a punk disco party going in, and MSTRKRFT are ready to man the decks. JFK and ALP are here to up the ante as rocks merger with electro continues to incite, excite, and rumble its way into dance charts the world over. Theyve got mad skills, fresh sounds, and theyve developed a legion of loyal fans in less than a year. Just who is the mystery duo?
MSTRKRFT (pronounced Master craft) is the project of Toronto musician Jesse F. Keeler and studio wizard Al-P, two music-loving dudes whove been itching to make people dance as hard as theyve made them rock. The pair has been collaborating, on and off, since 1998, when Al recorded Jesses punk rock band Black Cat #13. Though they went separate routes Jesse taking a brief break from music, and Al moving to New York where he worked at studios like Sound on Sound and Chung King recording artists as diverse as Jay-Z, Wyclef Jean, and David Clayton Thomas the friends remained in contact, trading tapes of their individual, unreleased forays into dance music.
Al returned to T.O. in December 2001, going on to work at studios including Chemical and his own Kimagure Sound, and becoming one of the citys hottest go-to men for hip-hop, house, and rock artists alike. His short-lived, self-described weirdo project Girls Are Short preceded the current, popular merger of indie rock and electronics, influencing bands including Broken Social Scene who count themselves as fans.
Jesse returned to music with the solo punk rock explosion Femme Fatale, enlisting Al-P to record the many singles that ensued. This studio success naturally led to Als being at the helm early in 2002 when Jesse was looking for fresh production ideas to compliment his new band, Death From Above 1979, also featuring drummer/vocalist Sebastien Grainger. Jesse and Al worked 15 hours a day in the studio together to complete DFA 79s Youre a Woman, Im a Machine, a red-hot masterpiece that fuses the energy of rock and roll with the oomph of disco. Not only did 2004s Youre A Woman go on to receive rave reviews from the likes of Pitchfork, MTV, Spin, Chart, Eye, and Playboy.com and spawn hit singles like Romantic Rights, and Black History Month, it also gave rise to Jesse and Als resolve to start their own project.
Enter MSTRKRFT, a shit-hot addition to the global community of sonic warriors currently smashing down boundaries between punk, house, hip-hop, grime, electro, and all kinds of electronic experimentation.
What were making now, we dont know what the hell it is, but I know its danceable, says JFK. We were hanging out in New York with Armand Van Helden the other day, talking about making tracks, and he was like As long as that thump is there, its fine and it will appeal to that audience.
So simple. So true, laughs ALP.
MSTRKRFT is already proving this to be so. In October of 2004, the duo recorded their first remix for release a balls-to-the-wall rendition of NYC band The Panthers Thank Me With Your Hands. An immediate underground success even before official release (the song was first included on a promo-only Vice magazine CD), the remix was played in dance clubs, rock clubs, and made its way onto compilations, including Plant Musics prestigious The Sound of Young New York + Toronto.
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