Deep in the Cat Cafe With Kassie Krut

It’s raining cats and dogs on the day I meet up with the members of Kassie Krut at a kitty cafe, and the animals are hiding. As we sip coffee and hit our vapes around a dinky table on the covered outdoor patio of the Cute Cat Cafe in Ridgewood, Queens, I start to wonder if there are, in fact, any cute cats roaming the premises. Eventually a calico emerges from the soggy backyard and saunters around the patio, catching the attention of a little girl through the window of the back door. The toddler comes tottering out hands first but the cat dashes off. Such is the feline way.

Pinning down a band IRL can sometimes feel as elusive as befriending a cat; trying too hard will almost certainly push them away. With their sweetly taunting industrial pop, Kassie Krut are poised to bridge the gap between experimental rock fans and IDM disciples. Naturally, the three members are what you’d call “heads,” so the way in is by comparing notes on underground heroes from DJ Rashad to Broadcast. Kasra Kurt, Eve Alpert, and Matt Anderegg tip me off to the O.G. dubstep producer Plastician and make me regret missing a recent HiTech and Nia Archives show. Later on, they send over a playlist of their influences that, in addition to mainstays like Haruomi Hosono, the Cure, and Mica Levi, also includes a half-dozen obscure producers (all of them extremely sick) and a version of “The Blue Danube” played with construction tools and theremin. “As much as we all like electronic music,” says Kurt, “the ambition for this project is not to be a purely electronic project.”