Audio By Carbonatix
It’s getting harder and harder to figure out what the kids are listening to these days. Case in point: Ratatat. Does the Brooklyn duo of Mike Stroud (guitars) and Evan Mast (synthesizers) make nouveau electronica? Or instrumental hip-hop? Or lo-fi IDM? Or alt-hop trance? Whatever you call the stuff, it’s got those same kids bopping their generally sullen heads in droves.
Stroud and Mast met as students back at Skidmore College in the Nineties, but didn’t start playing together till 2001. Three years later they released an eponymous debut, one produced — watch for falling product placement — on Stroud’s Apple Powerbook. The disc was full of dour keyboard fills, crunchy power chords, and syncopated beats, with the occasional oddball samples from irascible MCs. The tandem enjoyed something of a breakthrough with the release of Ratatat Mixtape Vol. 1, a series of rap remixes that put them on the map with the national media, and landed one of the tunes (somewhat dishearteningly) on a TV ad for Hummers. Both musicians do plenty of side work, Mast as a producer, and Stroud as a guitarist for Ben Kweller and Dashboard Confessional.
Just last month, Ratatat’s latest project — Ratatat Remixes, Vol. 2 — was leaked on the Internet. It includes revamped anthems from the likes of Jay-Z, Ludacris, Kanye West, and Juvenile, as well as exclusive tracks from Despot (who will open for Ratatat). The highlight is the pair’s ridiculously addictive remix of Biggie Smalls’s “Party & Bullshit,” which will soon be appearing in a TV commercial near you. Count on it.
