Ratatat - Self-Titled

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Ratatat - Self-Titled

Monday, February 08, 2010

Rumor has it that before Oceanic 815 crashed, Ben Linus and Richard Alpert had one hell of a band. Some time before that word is Jacob and his Nemesis had one also, hence their strained relationship. I'd imagine Ratatat falls somewhere between.

Reviewer
Kaitis
Categories
Music

Reviewed by Michael Kaitis

Ratatat - Ratatat

So one day I was looking up people I used to go to middle school with. You see, I moved down to Florida right after my 8th grade year. Well it turns out that one friend of mine actually worked as a college DJ in Terre Haute, Indiana (sup Everyview?). Besides typical indie choices like the Arcade Fire and Grizzly Bear, she happened to put one one of the coolest, most original bands I've heard in a while - Ratatat. When I first heard it, I thought was two people making incredible electronica songs with synths. My mind was blown when I found out it was actually made using only a bass and a guitar on top of a drum machine, tying together melodies like shoelaces.

As Kid Cudi fans could tell you, even with rock instruments these guys know how to make a good hip-hop beat. While the songs all follow a typical verse/chorus/verse structure, the limited variety of instruments forces them to use some cool effects and get more creative than they'd normally need to. Certain songs have such an electronic quality that by the time they get to the chorus, it'd be hard to tell that you're not listening to music from Sonic 2. While sometimes they use heavy, thick distortion like on the title track "Seventeen Years," which you may have heard during the party scene in Cloverfield.

All the songs are relentlessly catchy, and I think it's the lack of vocals that makes them work harder to stick with you. Track 9, "Germany to Germany", is the perfect example of how catchy a single instrumental can be, and it's probably the best track on the album because of it. On top of that, you'd think you might get sick of hearing just guitar and bass, but the tones never seem to get in the way of each other and you almost never hear the exact same notes twice. Lets just call this awesome little phenomenon musical snowflakes.

Therefore if you like electronic music that's slightly out of the ordinary like me, then I highly recommend checking this album out. It may be quite old at this point, but for being a band that infamously influences both rap and rock alike, Ratatat is still relatively unknown for some reason. Few bands can shred like Slash and have beats like Wayne, but even fewer can mix that skillfully. Ratatat is still an indie gem after all this time, and I think it's impossible to listen to this album not find at least one song you like.

Listen to Ratatat on Grooveshark

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