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Jul 22, 2016MSTRKRFT and Keeler have never been ones for half measures. Operator’s overall refusal to do just that, its inexorable 808 death march through a digital hell, makes it MSTRKRFT’s best album yet, not to mention an impressive approximation of DFA1979’s live show, in spirit if not in sound.
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Jul 20, 2016On Operator, MSTRKRFT seem uninterested in fitting in with current mainstream EDM trends, and that gives them the freedom to come up with something that still has just enough in common with their past to satisfy long-time fans.
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Jul 19, 2016MSTRKRFT themselves have quit trying to mask anything about their sound or approach, electing instead to deliver the turbo-aggressive noise record they’ve always threatened to make.
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Aug 3, 2016Without clear-cut standouts, Operator is really a full-album listening experience. This may hinder casual fans--there's no "Bounce" or "Heartbreaker" here--but diehards and lovers of more challenging electronic music will appreciate the chaotic journey of Operator.
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Jul 20, 2016The MSTRKRFT formula of tight, catchy loops remains unchanged after all--they've just gotten a lot darker.
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Jul 22, 2016MSTRKRFT is certainly far more inventive than most, so the songs aren’t boring, just unmoored. However, it does make Operator a frustratingly uneven listen.
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Jul 19, 2016The ten tracks here are all honest executions of a sound that was essentially perfected ten years ago; nostalgia alone can’t justify how little legitimately new material MSTRKRFT bring to the table.
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Jul 25, 2016Ultimately, the harder, almost techno-inclined instrumental tracks, such as Little Red Hen or Death in the Gulf Stream, are infinitely better than those burdened with vocals, some lairy and crass, some merely unengaging.
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Jul 22, 2016So far, so great. But when the use of vocals is taken into overdrive on final track ‘Go On Without Me’, where Jacob Bannon from hardcore punks Converge offers up his jarring scream, it’s almost on the borderline of becoming too much.
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UncutJul 19, 2016The blitzkrieg is offset by a vein of black humour, epitomised by Ian Svenonius' hilariously pitiless guest vocal on "Party Line." But as with any military campaign, fatigue eventually sets in. [Aug 2016, p.80]
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Jul 20, 2016There is plenty of decent stuff going on in the duo's third record, but it still never really takes off into any rarified territory.
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Jul 19, 2016Ultimately, their third record doesn't show MSTRKRFT to be master craftsmen.
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Jul 19, 2016Operator drags the listener kicking and screaming into what sounds like the soundtrack to the depths of hell, where the only music available is an unrelenting, want-to-bang-your-head-against-the-wall symphony of noise.
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Aug 10, 2016With Runaway, MSTRKRFT find a balance between the antagonistic incursion and electro-funk wizardry, but asides from that standout, the record as a whole is a jarring affair.
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Q MagazineJul 26, 2016Bursts of corrosive techno that have all the instrumental variety of a car alarm. [Sep 2016, p.108]
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Jul 21, 2016There’s a glimmer of what could have been on Runaway, its whirring wooze like a motorbike riding its front wheel deliriously along inky tarmac, driven by a “doo-doo-doo” pop hook.
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Jul 19, 2016Hard-partying techno heads will love the anxiety-inducing tone of Operator; others may see this as a missed opportunity, after a regenerative five-year hiatus, for MSTRKRFT to explore creative nuance over noise.
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Jul 28, 2016With the continually progressive and impressive places electronic music and its satellite genres are going, Operator is a regression to the uninspiring basics.