January Is For Beats: Ratatat...

Ratatat is made up of guitarist Mike Stroud, producer Evan Mast and more recently, Jacob Morris on the keytar. They have released a couple of remix albums of your favorite rapper guys (details here and here ) and also two other cd’s and an EP, which wasn't ever officially released (here, here and here respectively). I really like the way these guys sound and put shit together. It’s not standard fare hip-hop production, which always appeals to me.
The incorporation of guitars in hip-hop always makes me a bit uncomfortable because a lot of people don’t really know how to do it. For some reason they try to have some crazy Satriani-esque solo over a dry 808 beat. Not good. It’s like they have one dude who speaks only Japanese and makes hip-hop beats and listens to nothing else and then have some guy who speaks only siSwati and listens to nothing but Randy Rhodes' solos and then they’re put in a room together and are expected to work together, understand each other and make something cohesive and dope. That’s how I feel about it anyway. Ratatat doesn’t sound like that. I wouldn't say the guitars are subtle or understated but they gel with everything else that's going on. Plus, who doesn't like a little organ in their head nod? That could sound dirty if you try. I like it and I think you will agree. If you don’t, you’re wrong. But we can still call each other when we’re lonely.

I’m upping their debut and the EP entitled 9 Beats. A lot of the beats from the latter were used on the second volume of remixes and are more straight up beats while the debut is more song and melody based. They got a lot better at drum programming as time went on. Anyway, enjoy.


Pace.




01 - Seventeen Years
02 - El Pico
03 - Crips
04 - Desert Eagle
05 - Everest
06 - Bustelo
07 - Breaking Away
08 - Lapland
09 - Germany To Germany
10 - Spanish Armada
11 - Cherry

01 - Beat 01
02 - Beat 02
03 - Beat 03
04 - Beat 04
05 - Beat 05
06 - Beat 06
07 - Beat 07
08 - Beat 08
09 - Beat 09