Review Summary: It is always refreshing to go back to the roots to understand from the source how things turned out that way. Ratatat never sounded better, even when stripped to the very minimal.
Music projects of all sorts and natures always begin with something refreshing that makes them stand out from the three hundred other new groups that end up playing at your local bar or pub (depending on your geographical location), playing covers of bands that actually made it because of their talent, alas sometimes it's just a mere matter of good luck (or general crowd stupidity and incompetence at knowing what is OK and what is not OK).
Evan Mast, a strapping young american male is now in a massive band (well... if you can call two guys playing around a band) called Ratatat, which has taken over the world with great beats, crossing genres over like there was no tomorrow, and aiding the electronic dance music genre cross over to the rock world, and add some spice to the Hip-Hop world (in their two remix releases) with rock riffs to make vaginas wet all over the world.
But how did it all start? Here is where. Parking Lot Music, a proto-Ratatat release, shows us how to take over the world from the beginning with tiny equipment but great ideas. It is a popular trend among electronic music-aficionados to make three-hundred beats using Fruity Loops, make a myspace page, and get as many local fans as possible before banging out to the cool night clubs (or if they are the edgy type, to raves and take advantage of poor drug addicts) with their 4/4 beats that can easily get the "danceable" tag among their peers and get some applauses. Maybe a pretty lady at the end of the night. Nevertheless, Mast's style is less based on the mechanical response of the body to 4/4 beats and overdriven amplifiers and takes the road of minimalist electronic music, in the vein of Ricardo Villalobos and similar artists who depend less on heavy drum beats, but go for the melody behind electronic beats to achieve a deep, rich ambient with which you can chill out in your bedroom, or write the next big novel (about electronic music and raping tentacles, I guess) in the comfyness of your couch.
The instrumentation in the album is simple, but as I mentioned earlier, the ambiance is well achieved with comforting passages and fitting fills all over the place, without becoming annoying, especially in the percussive department.
The Process of Leaving, the first track in the album, defines the pace of the album and doesn't stop for 44 minutes of relentless (if you can call it that) soothing sounds. Much of the sounds in this album resembles what would later become Ratatat, in tracks such as
Tide Pool or
S. Carter which subtly give an introduction to what would become later the unique sound that would eventually turn out into Ratatat's trademark sound, even when the focus of the album (a minimalist electronic dance music album) remains untouched in songs like
Contra Costa or
When I Say Go.
This album is reccommended for those who like music like Ratatat, but are not in the mood to party the living *** out of their evening, but have a nice cup of coffee and read a book. Or make sweet love to a gentle female (who is also into this sort of music, that is). The best solo, pre-Ratatat material by Evan Mast.
