Ratatat @ The Duchess, York, 31 July 2008

This is my first time in the newly opened ex snooker hall now York super venue The Duchess. I must say it’s a pretty nice venue with lots of potential there wasn’t that many people in it though for most of the night, there was a lot more hipsters than I’m use to in York god knows where they came from, it seemed busy at the front for Ratatat though. There was a DJ spinning some of that electro/techno hybrid music but kind of messing up the mixes a little and I wasn’t feeling their selection very much. Any way that was loads better than the support band, I can’t recall their name but I aren’t fussed about that to be honest. They sounded like a boring bunch of kids playing at being a tribute band to Black Kids and Foals all at once, sure they could play their instruments but they shouldn’t have bothered. Anyway onto the good stuff as Ratatat were amazing and saved the night in style.

I wasn’t to sure about Ratatat’s latest album LP3 it’s a good one but I just didn’t fall for it. They blew that train of thought right out the window pretty quickly in the live experience mind. The beats are huge and phat as hell, with a funky swing to them full of bongo driven hip-hop loops. The keyboard added some 8-bit/atmospheric huge sounds, while the afroed up player bounced and head banged hard. The bass made you move your feet and arse, and those insane guitar solos made the crowd go wild as he rocked out like an old school rock god. This is sci-fi cowboy dub-hip-hop electro party music at its very very best. The energy Ratatat had was insane and they brought it to the table hard. They had back projection of artwork and snippets of old film footage that added to the retro vibe of the sound. They sound like they are taking Daft Punk’s Aerodynamic with its huge guitar solos and bumping beats into the hip-hop electro realm with great success. I don’t know many names of tunes unfortunately but they didn’t play a bum one all night long, each one got the heads nodding, people bouncing and girl dancing, pure party music. The last tune brought a more rock edge to the proceedings and one guy even got crowd surfing to the crunked out tune. Then it was over and there was silence, everyone smiling. As the place emptied it had a kind of youth club vibe to it though I guess it was the school holidays after all.

I found a mixtape Ratatat made of remixes they did of some rap and hip-hop tunes it’s a real treat and can be found for free on their myspace page or indeed here as I grabbed the link. Check it…

NEW: MIXTAPE VOL. 2
14 new remixes featuring: Bun B, Biggie Smalls, Jay-Z, Slim Thug, Devin the Dude, Young Jeezy, T.I., Beanie Sigel, Pimp C, Ludacris, Young Buck, Saigon, Juvenile, Z-ro, Memphis Bleek, Kanye West +exclusive tracks from Despot and Beans...

Download.