November 3, 2011
The moniker of Jesse Keeler and Alex Puodziukas’s electronic/remix duo, MSTRKRFT, makes for an awkward textual encounter. Rather than go head-to-head with the Canadian tools company Mastercraft in a copyright battle, Keeler and Puodziukas made the dubious choice of removing all the vowels in their name and hitting the proverbial shift button big time. So while MSTRKRFT may roll off the tongue, it doesn’t exactly roll off the keyboard.
Unfortunately, the concert in the Fillius Events Barn on Friday, Nov. 4 will not feature the full duo of MSTRKRFT, but rather Keeler in the guise of his solo project, JFK—whose uppercase moniker is somewhat more understandably drawn from Keeler’s initials. Despite the lack of Al-P, the show is bound to be no less impressive than a full MSTRKFRT show.
All that said about seemingly ill-advised monikers, Keeler along with Puodziukas (or Al-P, as he is known to fans) have largely been greeted with commercial and critical success. Their remixes in particular have caused quite a stir in the music world—revamping favorite indie tracks from artists ranging from Bloc Party to Metric. Those remixes demonstrated not only that Keeler and Al-P had an ear for music but also an acute sense of texture. Their remix of Wolfmother’s song “Woman,” for instance, trades dense AC/DC-derived stomp for a more angular, energetic approach. One wouldn’t think that trading the crunch of Andrew Stockdale’s guitar for anything else, but Keeler and Al-P make it work.
But besides revamping other musicians’ songs, MSTRKRFT has recorded some of their own original material. What really elevates some of their music above that of their peers is the clear musical grounding that Keeler provides to the listener; unlike many electronic-based musicians, Keeler has experience with a variety of instrumentation: he has bass, guitar, synthesizer, drums and saxophone under his belt, and the conceptual undercurrents of that instrumental mastery appear in the songs.
Their first album, The Looks (2006), attends with almost freakish obstinacy to the use of vocoder whenever vocals are present on the record. Tracks such as “Bodywork” and “Easy Love” robot-icize the human voice to a degree that Jeff Lynne couldn’t have even dreamed of. The album is almost hypnotically appealing with a heady, electronic mix dominating every song.
Their second album, Fist Of God (2009), introduces outside collaborators into the mix, including Ghostface Killah, N.O.R.E. and John Legend. While not every pairing is successful, the outside influences certainly serve to leaven the straightforward, electronic-heavy tone of The Looks, which, for all its glossiness and bombast, tends to blend all the tracks together after a few listens.
But looking after the albums is, however, not quite the point when it comes to house and electronic music; the concerts and their resulting dance parties are the real kicker. Keeler and Al-P already had long and storied careers in the music business before joining together as MSTRKRFT, so being on the stage in front of their mixing tables is something like a second home to them. MSTRKRFT’s tight sound and stage presence will doubtlessly make for a show that will be hard to forget.
Performing without Al-P as JFK, Keeler will take the stage at 10 p.m. for a 90-minute set that is sure to be as energetic as last semester’s Switch show.