Band of the Week: Ratatat

Band: Ratatat (or RATATAT depending on who you ask)
From: Brooklyn, NY
Sound: Imagine majestic melodic 8-bit video game soundtracks played in perfect intervals by Eddie Van Halen and the ghost of Duane Allman
Similar Artists: Daft Punk, Walter Meego, Hot Chip, Trans Am, Laromlab
Listen Now: "Mirando"

Much of the advance word surrounding Ratatat's forthcoming LP3 (out July 8th on XL) has focused upon the record's incremental shift away from straightforward rock compositions in favor of a broader and more worldly sound.

Now if by worldly we're referring to "otherworldly", these reviews seem pretty fair. But the problem is that Ratatat - the duo of multi-instrumentalist/programmer Evan Mast and guitarist Mike Stroud - have never really made traditional rock music to begin with, so any assessment of their evolution from 2004's self-titled debut through 2006's Classics to LP3 has to keep this in mind. When you've already started with a wholly innovative take on the rock formula - symphonic movements the length of pop songs that utilize the electric guitar's brash melody in lieu of vocals - you can only go further down the rabbit hole.

And this is exactly what the band accomplishes on LP3, not so much a dramatic reinvention but a logical exploration further into the nuances and contours of the world they've already created, splitting it open and shaking it up a bit....

Before, Ratatat was the sound of cruising hot asphalt in a Trans Am with T-tops and playing Contra in the basement of a parallel world. Now, Ratatat is the sound of hand claps spattered around sacrificial bonfires at the mouth of a volcano in a parallel world (while still playing Contra).

These are changes in atmosphere, changes prompted by Mast's continued excellence at building pulsing sonic landscapes that bubble and gurgle with electronic bursts at exactly the most rewarding moment. These are changes that largely flow from the variation in percussive sounds and textures on the album, as Mast has introduced a slightly more organic give and take to his beats and rhythms. This isn't to say that Ratatat sounded cold and clinical before; one of the band's main strengths has always been in generating a warm fuzzy pulse to their electronic grooves. Instead, it just suggests that they coaxed a bunch of Ewoks into the Catskills (where LP3 was recorded) to bang on soup cans, knotty tree roots, and whatever else they could find. Tracks like "Dura" display this trend perfectly, blending compressed drum samples with occasional bursts of clattering seashells, while others such as "Mi Viejo" favor layers of hand drums and what sounds like a combo of water droplets in a bucket and a deck of shuffled cards.

The beauty of all this is that Ratatat appears to have further tweaked a winning formula while maintaining what has been so immediately identifiable and transcendent about their music: Stroud's guitar. That trademark wail, channeled and manipulated through god-knows-how-many analog and digital middle men, still commands the spotlight throughout much of the album. That's very much a good thing.

And all of it - the extra-planetary funk, freshly organic click-clacking beats, glistening guitar lines, and throwback vibe to 1980s video game warfare (Predator!) - is on display in this video for "Mirando", the second single from the album. If you haven't seen it, you must; if you have, you must watch it again:



Pre-order LP3 HERE

Listen:
"Mirando"
"Shiller"

See Also:
- Vinyl Triumphs Over CDs (again) + New Ratatat
- Ratatat Live Videos

See Ratatat Live:
07 July - Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
08 July - Portland, OR @ Holocene
10 July - San Francisco, CA @ Slim's
12 July - Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex
15 July - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

Visit Ratatat on MySpace.
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In the recent past, the following bands have been featured as EAR FARM's Band of the Week:
Steinski
These United States
Kelley Polar
Plants and Animals
All the Saints
I'm From Barcelona
Bombadil
Tapes 'n Tapes


See the entire list of bands featured as EAR FARM's Band of the Week HERE.