Weekly Album Review: MSTRKRFT - Fist of God
Written by pistachionut on Wednesday, 18 of March , 2009 at 3:44 pm
MSTRKRFT didn’t start this one out on a good note. Before taking a listen to Fist of God, here’s what I knew. “Bounce” is trashy as fuck and “Vuvuvu” is SebastiAn’s “Motor” without the gimmick. The album cover is a fist made out of asses and thighs. So that’s my impression going into this. No expectations, no hype. This album has one sound, one formula. It goes like this…
1) Write an instrumental as if you were remixing a pop song.
2) Use the same drums you used on either “Easy Love,” “Bounce” or JFK’s edit of “Is You.”
3) Bring in a guest vocalist.
4) Have that guest vocalist go beyond their vocal range or rapping speed.
5) Repeat.
So let’s apply the formula. “It Ain’t Love” with guest vocals from Lil’ Mo is the opener to the album. The synth is so large that the vocals get completely lost, and not in a good way. It’s hardly the swirling wall of sound that I can picture them in the studio trying to create. “1,000 Cigarettes” is essentially “Easy Love pt II.” They rip the cowbell drumline from their older stuff, and the heavily loop based song goes nowhere. The John Legend clad “Heartbreaker” has the hi-hats that we’re so used to from JFK’s remix work. It’s easily the lowest key song on the album, and for that I admire it. It’s the most stripped down of any of their work, but it’s not a style that necessarily suits them: when the synth hits over the piano near the end of the song, it sounds awful. The title track, “Fist of God” is a disaster. Another overly loud and distorted synth with some token chopped vocals spliced in. The main intent is clearly for the dancefloor, but this will create more havoc than good when played out. E-40’s drop on “Click Click” sounds like he’s racing to keep up with the track’s high tempo. He’s slightly behind and his vocals just don’t aid to the track’s flow.
All in all, it is very hard to find the likable elements of this album. The slowest song on the album (”Fist of God”) is 126 BPM, while the fastest (”Breakaway”) clocks in at 132. There is no variety in sound or tempo on Fist of God. Every song is the same. A dance album can often save itself with a quality single containing a few good remixes, but MSTRKRFT fails to do that. The original material is so dense and unworkable a remix would only make it worse. There were no good remixes of “Bounce” and it’s doubtful any of the other tracks on this album will be so lucky. MSTRKRFT are no longer amongst the frontrunners of electronic music. Fist of God fails miserably in almost every category. Take a lesson, JFK and Al-P. Listen to Yuksek’s Away from the Sea or Tiga’s “Mind Dimension.” That’s how electronic music is done in 2009.
MSTRKRFT - Click Click ft. E-40
Category: Miscellaneous
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Comment by Liam
Made Wednesday, 18 of March , 2009 at 7:35 pm
you fuckin suck.
Comment by pistachionut
Made Wednesday, 18 of March , 2009 at 8:05 pm
so psyched for all the haters on this post.
Comment by al
Made Thursday, 19 of March , 2009 at 1:17 am
wow you must of drank lotz of haterade dis mornin
Comment by DC
Made Thursday, 19 of March , 2009 at 6:07 pm
I totally agree with everything said. This album is noisy repetitve electro. What happened to old school MSTRKRFT. Their old stuff like Easy Love and Monster Hospital remix sounds better and more suitable today than the new stuff.
Comment by SS
Made Friday, 20 of March , 2009 at 1:19 am
True. There is also toooooo much side chaining on a lot of the sounds. If their beats can’t cut through the mix then turn eq/down the synths. I’m sick of that over done push, pull suction effect.
Keep it subtle.
Comment by Chase
Made Friday, 20 of March , 2009 at 10:53 am
HATERRRRRRRRR. bounce is a total party starter, vuvuvu with the epic buildup, can not disagree with you more.
Comment by Dave
Made Friday, 20 of March , 2009 at 1:06 pm
Wow sounds like you just jumped on the band wagon with this one. Mstrkrft is about party music-so thats what they do. The only problem with this album is that it just sounds like remixes, not their own stuff. Favorite song-Breakaway
Comment by booo
Made Friday, 20 of March , 2009 at 2:13 pm
DANCE MUSIC IS ON AVERAGE 130 BPM. MIND DIMENSION IS 124 BPM. DONT COMPLAIN ABOUT THEIR VARIETY IN BPM WHEN FINDING A DANCE SONG OUT OF THAT RANGE IS NEAR IMPOSSIBLE
Comment by booo
Made Friday, 20 of March , 2009 at 2:16 pm
surkin trumps yuksek on composer. yuksek fails in remix’s other then siriusmo’s all the girls or chromeo
Comment by David
Made Friday, 20 of March , 2009 at 7:52 pm
I love MSTRKRFT’s remixes and their first album. Fist of God is simply too cluttered with vocals that don’t add anything good to the (repetitive) synth. If they had contributions as good as Andre 3000 on their Green Light remix, maybe this album would be good. But they’re not. The Ghostface track is fucking awful, “it’s all in your FUCKIN FUCKIN FUCKIN FUCKIN.” I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth…
Comment by horatio
Made Saturday, 21 of March , 2009 at 5:03 am
I completely agree with the review. The album is repitive and awful. The synth changes about once in the entire album. There is no ingenuity.
It’s a real shame considering how good the looks was.
I disagree on one point. The a-trak remix of bounce is alright.
Surkin also rules.
x
Comment by alex
Made Saturday, 21 of March , 2009 at 7:40 am
yeah. anyone can create a nice sounding synth and repeat it over and over. toss in some big(ish) name guest vocalist, and you can cash it in! i need another good song like “the looks” that i can mix with! the crowds i play in front of don’t want to hear “an uptempo 120″ with annoying raps over top of annoying synths!
Comment by Dave
Made Saturday, 21 of March , 2009 at 7:47 am
whoever wrote this review is a little bitch…everyone knows mstrkrft is killing it thats just their sound…youre probably gonna shit all over justice’s next album
Comment by Simon
Made Saturday, 21 of March , 2009 at 1:55 pm
I agree with some of what you said, but you’re trying a little to hard to hate or mstrkrft. I don’t think very many people will take this review seriously, but you made some decent points
Comment by Mason
Made Saturday, 21 of March , 2009 at 5:55 pm
a-trak remix of bounce is good, beyond that you’re good
Comment by Ura Wanker
Made Sunday, 5 of April , 2009 at 4:28 pm
I love seeing all of the haters of the haters. Pull MSTRKRFT’s dick out of your mouths fanboys and have a proper listen to the album. It’s an utter let down. That’s hard for me to say because I am such a huge fan. Lets hope the next album puts them back to the top.
Comment by Darren
Made Monday, 6 of April , 2009 at 9:30 pm
All you MSTRKRFT lovers have really bad taste. Please refrain from calling their music “electro”. You guys are nothing but a bunch of posers just like MSTRKRFT. There is nothing electro about their music. They are just 2 upstart electronic producers that don’t know anything about electronic music let alone trying to produce intellegent programming. Their music is nothing but bad rock music made with synth sounds. For God sakes…they don’t even know how to use their gear properly.
Comment by Polite
Made Thursday, 7 of May , 2009 at 10:53 pm
Ugh. Love the synth riffs, hate the vocals. I want a vocal-less version of this album.
Comment by jay
Made Wednesday, 13 of May , 2009 at 8:44 pm
This release came across as very shallow & redundant.
The writting was monotenous & unentertaining but I guess this should’nt come as a surprise as they’ve been on tour, drinking & partying for most part of the last three years. The sound itself also seemed to be rushed & not as carefully crafted as their first album.
Comment by samo
Made Wednesday, 22 of July , 2009 at 6:23 pm
MSTRKRFT are one of the worst excuses of producers i have ever heard. They give electronic music a bad name. All you bandwagon jumpers have no idea what is out there when it comes to electronic music. These guys are amateur electronic musicians. Their sound is dated and their programming is unintelligent. This is the sort of thing that shallow, drug addicted rich kids like. You all think that you’re cool by liking these guys. You are wrong! You are all losers with bad taste in music. When you grow up you will all realize this.
