Operator

• Track Listing

Vinyl LP pressing. After a five year hiatus, Canadian electronic music agitators MSTRKRFT (Jesse F. Keeler & Al-P) return with the highly anticipated new album Operator. The duo quietly began work on Operator in late 2013 at their Toronto studio, optimizing their analog attack with an arsenal of synths, 808s, 909s and other equipment to track and perform what would eventually become Operator. They left the computer set to "record" and banged out hundreds of hours of music to draw from. "The 'operator' concept for us was essential in the creation of the music on this album, but I'm not sure what came first, the title or the idea," says Keeler. "While browsing military related websites and blogs, mostly consisting of vets talking to each other like any civilian I suppose, I noticed repeated reference to something they called 'operator culture.' It seemed to be something that was sometimes laughed at, sometimes caused disdain, but was referenced constantly and seemed to be understood by everyone. I came to believe the operator concept is one of detachment." "For example, an operator of a tank referring to himself as merely the operator, rather than defining himself by what he is actually doing with the tank," he continues. "'Operating' a sniper rifle would seem to be a much easier concept to deal with than the reality of what being a successful sniper means. In the comfort of our rehearsal space, we had been going through a similar phase of discovering detachment. As we had decided to work entirely with hardware, all our old drum machines and modular synth collection, we had begun to feel more like operators than musicians."