AAA Backstage Archive

Did We Think We'd Ever Get Here? Ratatat's 5th LP Drops Today!

After an often-seeming interminable wait (five years and five weeks, if you were wondering) since their last release, the convoluted LP4, experimental Brooklyn instrumentalists Ratatat have unveiled their fifth full-length, the fittingly-titled Magnifique.

It is magnificent that this musical partnership has continued well into its second decade. It’s wonderful that such an experimental duo can still get such glowing critical and public reception despite their music being so far from the current zeitgeist of lush, poppy electronica. It’s a marvel that, despite four years of recording, Evan Mast and Mike Stroud were able to make an album of such satisfying structure, complete with a carnivalesque “Intro” and “Outro”, and whimsical mid-album interludes.

Magnifique represents a return to the band’s core sound and aesthetic. Whereas, in the more experimental phase of LP3 and LP4, percussion and beat usually drove the melodies, this relationship has been inverted, Stroud’s searing, borderline rockabilly guitar hurtles this album forward at a blistering pace. The relationship between rhythm and melody is that much more important, according to the duo in a recent interview with Spin, due to the absence of lyrical content: “Because it's instrumental music, you can't just be half-assed with the music and then like, 'Oh someone will sing on this’… It makes it a bit more of a challenge.”

The LP continues Ratatat’s long and fruitful relationship with XL Recordings. The duo is booked in for a slew of American and European Festival dates in the next couple of months. FasterLouder likes Ratatat to make an Australian festival trip later in the year as well, putting them at 10-1 odds for a Falls Festival appearance. With previous singles “Cream on Chrome” and “Abrasive” going absolutely bonkers on  Triple J, I don’t think we can rule out a few Hottest 100 appearances either.