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About

The Kinetic Console is a musical project from Chicago created in 2019 by Emmy-nominated composer/musician Christian Moder (The Great Crusades). While the band operates essentially as a duo with Lunar Hotel frontman Marvin Albor providing the guitars, they often collaborate with other musicians and artists.

The idea to create The Kinetic Console came about while Moder was shopping with his family. He had just composed a ton of music for a movie that inexplicably ended up on the cutting room floor. Albor had contributed guitar parts to the score and many of the commercials Moder had scored as well. Moder thought, “What should I do with all this cool music we wrote? Hell with it, let’s start a band and create more of it!” So Moder called Albor and asked him if he wanted to be a part of it—and indeed he did. A lot of The Kinetic Console music was inspired by that film score, in addition to various music Moder had written for commercials and projects that were left unfinished.

Filtered through a modern indie pop lens, The Kinetic Console blends layered drums/machines, 80s-inspired guitars, cello and pulsing synths, along with Moder’s hushed vocals, exploring influences including dance music, punk, rock and hip hop. Think LCD Soundsystem meets Blur with the snappy guitars of The Smiths and XTC and you’ll be on the right path to the sonic world of The Kinetic Console. 

Mates

One of the main reasons I created the Kinetic Console was to have a reason to work with various musicians that I respect and selfishly want to make music with.

- Moder

Marvin Albor

I started taking music lessons at age 7. Moder was my piano teacher throughout grade school and high school. He made learning, playing, and performing music in front of an audience fun. In college, my music professors made me feel like those things were like chores that had to be done. I had kept in touch with Moder after I dropped out of music school, and he started asking me to do some session work on guitar for some commercial spots he was working on. I guess he really liked my playing because he kept asking me to work for him after the first few spots. As we were working together, I was trying to start my own band, which desperately needed a lead-singer. Since I didn't personally know anyone with the type of voice that I thought would have sounded good with the type of music I was writing, except for myself, I took voice lessons for a little while. I think I took lessons for about 6 months before it started to feel like a chore to do, but 6 months wound up being enough time for me to get good enough at singing to be the lead-singer of a rock band - I lend my singing voice on a few Kinetic Console songs. When Moder asked if I would be interested in being involved in a new project of his, I didn't think twice. Moder and I work really well together and I knew he was only going to push me to become a more skilled guitar-player and vocalist in a way that would be enjoyable and non-restrictive. Agreeing to be a part of Kinetic Console was the best and easiest decision I ever made.

Brian Krumm

Brian Krumm grew up in Collinsville, Illinois, playing his first gig in sixth grade alongside bandmates Brian Hunt and Christian Moder. He attended the University of Illinois and was a member of the art rock faves The Suede Chain in Champaign-Urbana. Krumm founded The Great Crusades there and released the band’s first album, The First Spilled Drink of the Evening, in the late 1990s. David Fricke praised that album in Rolling Stone and said that Krumm had “the tubercular pipes of Tom Waits and Axl Rose’s love child.” Eight more releases followed, as did many international tours with Crusaders Hunt, Moder and Brian Leach, with fans lining up for more of Krumm’s twisted tales of love and lust and for the band’s raucous live shows. The Crusades are still at it, working on the band’s tenth release. Krumm also performs solo and works as a writer and has published several books for young readers. He lives in Chicago with his wife Laura and daughters Hazel and Vivian.

Jake Brookman

Jake started playing the cello when he was 9 years old and quickly realized that he had a passion for music.  He played with the CASA Young People's Orchestra and the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, serving as Principal Cello for both.  While still in high school he won the young artist concerto competitions of the CASA Young People’s Orchestra, Alton Symphony Orchestra and the Brentwood Symphony Orchestra.  Jake then went on to study performance at the Mannes College of Music in New York City with a scholarship.

In 1992 shortly after his return to St. Louis, he joined The Suede Chain (a rock band from Champaign, IL) which would be the first of many bands that Jake has played with throughout the years.  He has performed with Union Avenue Opera Theater, Winter Opera St. Louis and as an extra musician with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.  Jake currently performs with HämmerString, Salt of the Earth, and The University City Symphony Orchestra.  He also collaborates, records and performs with various other local and regional artists.

His cello teachers have included Susan Hampton, Beverly Field, Yuan Tung, Aleksander Ciechanski, Stephen Balderston, Robert Silverman, Peter Wiley and Paul Tobias.  Jake plays a factory produced Czechoslovakian cello from the 1920’s. nulla.