 "Photo: Photo courtesy of Ratatat")
Two guys, guitar, bass and keyboard is all it took to garner raving attention of notoriously harsh music critics. Ratatat’s infectious, electronic hip-hop tracks forgo vocals but continue to generate a sound drenched in lyrical genius.
Evan Mast, synthesizer player and producer for Ratatat, took the time to talk to DT Weekend about their upcoming appearance at Fun Fun Fun Fest.
In 2004, the same year the duo released their self-titled debut album, they veered off the path set out by label XL Records and got to work on a mix tape — Ratatat Remixes Vol. 1. Mast and Mike Stroud (guitar) remixed the work of major hip-hop artists like Jay-Z and Brooklyn Zoo, but due to legal issues without rights to the vocals, the release was purely promotional.
“It was totally bootleg music — we cut the A cappella off records,” Mast said. “It was a lot of sitting in my apartment making beats ... It was something I was doing anyway just for fun. So it was nice to put those songs out there and let it be.”
Their tryst into toying with intellectual property paid off big time – brash reviewers Rolling Stone and Pitchfork awarded their rare but powerful positivity to Vol. 1. In 2007 they went through the same process for Ratatat Remixes Vol. 2.
A group based in novelty, Ratatat creates beats that are much more substantial than the shallow drum machines that often accompany “electronic” music. Mast said the music-making process can be time-consuming. He and Stroud begin with dropping a basic drumbeat that they improvise on top of with a lot of “refining, layering, going back and editing.” The result — a synthesized sound so rich it’s unbelievably satiable.
“We are just trying to make sounds that are new ... that sounds like something we have never heard before,” Mast said. “I think that is kind of one of the most exciting things in the studio — combining groups of sounds you don’t usually hear together ... trying out different production ideas that people have never done before.”
Fun Fun Fun Fest will be the first and only show on Ratatat’s schedule for a while. Mast said they took a lengthy hiatus from touring to work on different projects and visit friends and family. Their usual energetic performance “should be interesting,” though. “We are going to have to practice for sure,” he said, accompanied with a nervous laugh.
Their upcoming album, LP4 (set to release next year) was recorded during the same studio time as LP3 (released July 2008) but they are again straying from the “obvious” notions already expressed.
“LP4 is really strange,” Mast said. “Like, it’s all of the weird, bizarre ideas that came out after we got the other stuff out of our system – we are just trying a lot of things we haven’t tried before.”
WHAT: Ratatat
WHEN: Saturday, 8:30 p.m.
WHERE: Orange Stage
DOWNLOAD THIS TRACK: “Shempi”
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