Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Electro-Funk Ninjas: Ratatat

Felt like I needed to get off the Drake tracks for at least a few days and throw a curveball your direction with a little bit of off the wall funk. Before you pass too much judgment for this being a far cry from Hip Hop, their is only a small degree of separation between the electro/funk/synth rhythms that the duo in question, Ratatat, is responsible for. Let's take a trip down memory lane for a minute, to when I was non-stop gushing about this new artist named Kid Cudi who was bringing a more than diverse flavor of Hip Hop that had not been heard before. Much of that was due to the New York duo consisting of guitarist Mike Stroud and bass/synth/producer E*Vax or Evan Mast.

The duo was responsible for producing two of my favorite tracks off Man on the Moon: The End of Day, Pursuit of Happiness and Alive (Nightmare). The use of uncharacteristically melancholy, trippy synthesizers over the loud clap of these two beats is epic. The beats on these two tracks matched Cudi's loner, psychedelic, vulnerable mood throughout the album and became two of the biggest reasons I will always regard Cudi's fist album as classic.

Producer guest spots aside, they released an album titled LP3 that gained lots of underground critical acclaim for being "highly danceable elctronica". After giving the album a listen, I agree with that statement and further than notion by blessing them with my closest comparison being to Daft Punk and Nine Inch Nails. Even Daft is a little more techno and less electro than Ratatat, but the electro feel is very Trent Reznor of NIN...I know, a lofty, but well deserved comparison IMO.

Which brings us to their new album titled LP4 that is supposed to drop in about a week and a half on June 8th. Feel free to stream the whole album here thanks to our friends over at NPR. As far as what tracks I like so far, hands down my favorite is Bare Feast, which is more of an marriage made in heaven between celtic and electronic music. For someone who has some Irish heritage in them, this is without a doubt worthy of praise as something that sounds completely different than any type of music you've ever heard.

Give it a listen...
Ratatat - Bare Feast (link taken down at request of XL Recordings). If you would like to preview this song and all of the other songs on their upcoming release, please go to NPR, which has the files available to stream.

Another track off LP4, Drugs is exactly what you'd envision when you think of drugs. Crazy, tripped out in your face synthesizers that take you on an intense high pitched journey. The pace is fast, it's upbeat and I can count at least 10 different beat elements throughout the track. Intensity pervades, craziness ensues, and you find yourself dancing...that's Drugs in a nutshell....

Ratatat - Drugs (link removed)...Preview track at NPR

For all the people out there expecting lyrics, sorry, today I let you down...but you gotta admit the style Ratatat brings is alarmingly fresh...c'mon admit it...

2 comments:

WEB SHERIFF May 26, 2010 at 3:52 AM  

WEB SHERIFF
Who You Gonna Call
Tel 44-(0)208-323 8013
Fax 44-(0)208 323 8080
websheriff@websheriff.com
www.websheriff.com

Hi TK,

On behalf of XL Recordings and Ratatat, we would kindly ask you not to post copies of "LP4" on your site (or any non-preview tracks from Ratatat’s forthcoming album - street date 7th June).

We do appreciate that you are fans of / are promoting Ratatat, but the label and artist would greatly appreciate your co-operation in removing your links to the pirate files in question.

Thank you for respecting the artist's and label’s wishes and, if you / your readers want good quality, non-pirated, preview tracks, then a full length version of "Party with Children" is available for fans and bloggers to link to / post / host etc at promo.xlrecordings.com/ratatat_party_with_children.mp3 ... .. for further details of the new album, upcoming previews, on-line promotions, videos and 2010 shows, check-out the official site at www.ratatatmusic.com, as well as the artist's MySpace at www.myspace.com/ratatatmusic and YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/ratatatmusic ... .. and keep an eye on these official sources for details of further news, preview material and on-line promotions.

Also and as a goodwill gesture to fans and bloggers, an exclusive preview stream of the full album is currently available via NPR as part of their ‘First Listen’ series at www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126975109 ... .. this is for hyper-linking ONLY and for streaming by fans directly off NPR, so please reciprocate this goodwill gesture by NOT ripping or embedding these files.

With Thanks & Regards,

WEB SHERIFF

TK May 26, 2010 at 6:46 PM  

Links are taken down and have been replaced with links to the NPR site to stream.

eXTReMe Tracker