Thursday, November 09, 2006

Ratatat - Vans re-edit



The Pack, "Vans (Ratatat re-edit)" (sendspace link)

The Knife, "We Share Our Mother's Health (Ratatat remix)"
(sendspace link) 320 BR

Ratatat need way more attention at this site, for real. They seem to be a band that always has some hype when their shit first drops, but they never get the sustained love. Honestly, the more I listen to their albums and their remixes/re-edits, the more frustrated I am by that situation. I think that the biggest problem for them is falling between audiences, coupled with the inevitable fate of being an instrumental act. Their sound is almost too unique, somewhere between dance-punk and drone, hip hop and indie.

The song above is new and a good way to get into the band. They really got their initial buzz from doing a whole album worth of original instrumentals under rap acapellas. It was brilliant stuff, a chance for them to show their influences. Here they take one of the better joints from '06, The Pack's "Vans" and turn it into a psychrock jam. It's very good, although you know your bol loves the minimal snap shit from the original more. Make sure to cop Ratatat's new album here, as it's held my attention since I got it.

I never got a chance to talk about their show last month at the Khyber here in Philly. It was a sold-affair that ran super late for no apparent reason. The crowd was good, in good spirits despite the long wait for the headliners. Ratatat played a great set, mostly stuff from the new one. Thanks to MG for coming with me, taking a chance on a band she'd never heard of. She actually loved it more than me, so I really think that the band could get a little bigger.

-George Allen concedes, the Dems have full control of the Senate. Fucking a yea!

-Peep the new design at Blackmail Is My Life, great to have the other JT back blogging on the regular

-Borat Central on Youtube

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a somewhat mediocre mash-up of "Lex" with "Vans". Their actual remixes shine a lot more, check out this Ghostface Remix from v.1:
http://bmonje.no-ip.org/ratatat/ghostface_jadakiss_run.mp3
Word is that they should have v.2 ready for sale at shows for their next US tour.
-E*Rock

Chief said...

Ratatat is trife, son. Thanks for posting this. I've been fucking with Ratatat and caught their set when they came to Toronto last month. They put on a great show. Until you see them live, you don't realize what a great guitarist Stroud is. After putting out their mixtape, its a wonder that they haven't scored more production gigs in the industry.

Anonymous said...

wow. I love ratatat, ive been listening to em since the first album. and all I gotta say is that vans re-edit sounds like crap. i mean it doesnt flow at all IMO. ill stick to the original of BOTH songs thank you haha.

Anonymous said...

Man, I really do not think this remix of We Share Our Mother's Health does justice to the original. It captures none of the bombastic, crazy, creepy overtones. If The Knife, as an entity, was really tired from a 3-day coke binge and about to crash, this is how the sound would have came out.

All around, though. Ratatat is pretty grand, though. I definitely agree with you there.

As always, thanks for the songs n such!