Events

[ELECTRONIC] Often, the simplest projects end up taking the longest to complete. It took Ratatat five years to follow up LP4 with Magnifique, which finally arrived in July after a string of teaser singles that began in late winter. Despite the long wait, it’s a relatively pared down affair that most closely resembles the duo’s 2004 self-titled debut. For Mike Stroud—who along with producer/musician Evan Mast comprises the Brooklyn-based instrumental duo—the simplicity is a relief…even if it did take forever to finish the album.

“This album is just better,” he said over the phone, having just returned from a headlining run of European festival dates. Ratatat has just a few days off before resuming their American tour, which includes a show on Thursday, September 3 at the Rapids Theatre in Niagara Falls.

“I feel more confident in it, and the palette is more basic because the songs are better—stronger, and more fun. They stand up with less stuff added in, and we both feel more confident about this disc than either of the last two.”

LP3 and LP4, released in 2008 and 2010 respectively, were the products of having an increased production budget and found the duo stretching well beyond the relatively basic mechanics of their celebrated debut. Fans didn’t seem to mind: Ratatat’s profile continued rising steadily, bolstered by tracks like “Shiller,” “Shempi,” and “Party with Children,” but the process of live performance was becoming arduous, and—Stroud admits—not nearly as enjoyable.

“It was becoming increasingly difficult to play the songs as a duo,” he said. “Because of all the production experiments on the last two records, we each had a ton of added responsibilities on stage. During the course of one song, I’d play guitar, keyboards, drums, and have to repeatedly trigger samplers—it’s a lot to worry about. It’s maybe not something that people who don’t play music would realize, necessarily, but if you’re so busy worrying about the intricacies of the performance, it’s very difficult to enjoy what you’re doing. There’s a lot less thinking involved in playing the new songs, which allows me to just play guitar and get into the spirit of the show.”

At a time when bands spring up at a dizzying rate and mediocrity propels momentum, Ratatat has a differentiating trump card that cannot be argued with: no lyrics. It’s a defining characteristic that forever renders the duo a singular entity, especially when you consider the number of instrumental projects that have courted mainstream popularity can be counted on one hand.

But being a solely instrumental project makes the process of songwriting less structured, and considerably more time consuming. Stroud says there’s never any imagery that launches a Ratatat song. Instead, the music is all begun blindly, in a studio setting—no narratives, no storylines.

“I don’t think either of us ever has a picture or a sound in mind when we go into starting a song,” he said. “It’s a groove based process, I guess. For our first record, we’d start with a beat and then jump around, layering different instruments and jamming together until we were satisfied that we had something we could definitely use.

“In the end, we’re just trying to entertain ourselves in the studio, it’s about what we want to hear… and maybe that’s a little selfish,” he continued. “But when we’ve tried to work on a song with a plan, the track always ended up suffering; it sucked, and we threw it away. I think the new songs are as strong as they are because we started with melodies this time. I’m not saying that narratives don’t sometimes begin developing as songs take shape—they do, and actually, that’s one way you can determine what’s a mistake, like ‘wait, this isn’t where the song is supposed to go.’ But it’s always best when you can cut a basic track in one day and not have to consider the trajectory. It makes it harder to go back to finish, and that’s one of the reasons why Magnifique took so long.”

But if visuals aren’t an ingredient going into the process of songwriting, they certainly play a key role on the other end when Ratatat takes their songs on the road. With no singing focal point and little interest in hogging the spotlight, Stroud and Mast rely on a dazzling display of lasers, lighting, and video clips to keep their audience actively engaged.

“Evan does the video stuff,” Stroud explained. “We actually had a few artists creating the material, but Evan curated it. For this tour, we rented all the lighting and the laser equipment and then spent a week in Nashville designing with the technicians. It was kinda funny since we’re super picky down to the last detail about the look of the show and the technicians are also very particular—you don’t want to step on their toes. It seemed like those guys really enjoyed this project, though, despite having to deal with us. Most bands, y’know, the lighting is secondary since the show is all about them.”