The Rapture
Tapes
Rating: 2.5
Label: !K7
Oh, the mixed tape - pardon, mixed CD. Countless successful artists have at one time or another offered up an album of their favorite tracks. It's the crowning gratitude a musician can show their idols, an act perhaps bearing a subliminal motive upon fans to indulge in their own personal tastes. Tapes is an aural journey through the influences that shaped and sculpted The Rapture's unprecedented disco-punk hybrid. Twenty-two tracks and 74 minutes long, Tapes bounces, bumps and shimmies its way around a myriad of dance genres: Motown, funk, disco, house, hip-hop and techno, to name a few. It's an even mix of vintage grooves and new-school beats, ranging from the obscure to the outright over-spinned.
Tapes follows its own logical linear chronology. Starting the album is Ghostface Killah, who certainly isn't a 1960s Motown symbol, but his "Daytona 500" is layered in a deceitfully vintage production design. These old-school tones slowly give way to the disco section of the record. Don Armondo's Second Avenue Rumba Band's "I'm an Indian Too" is an interesting disco choice sporting a showtunes-y tang. About halfway through, beginning with Armand Van Helden's "Flowerz," the album high-dives into modern dance and techno for its remainder. Tapes in itself is a brief history of dance music and its progressions from funky slap bass to early drum machines to futuristic synths.
So the question is, where does that leave The Rapture if this is indeed their album? The answer: Assuming DJ roles, and this is where Tapes flexes its distinction from other mixed tape compilations. The songs are remixed - some only touched, some slathered - in a traditional marathon-spinning format. The majority of these remixes seamlessly flow into the next in a perpetual, continuous groove, complete with filtered loops and patched samples; Tapes is a 74-minute rave and everyone is invited. Unfortunately, this rave sounds too contrived to be convincing. Song transitions aren't always up to par. Take the crossover between Arcade Lover's "Fantasy Lines" and Thomas Bangalter's "Club Soda." The clumsy beat mishmash sounds amateurish is very detrimental to the record's flow - a key element to efficacious DJ mixes.
It's also worth mentioning how obsolete Tapes is, considering the dime-a-dozen DJ mixing software floating around the internet. These days, anyone willing to put in a little time can create their own personalized remix. This, of course, doesn't detract from the song choices themselves, but any Rapture fan is sure to have at least a few of these songs shuffling on their iPods already. And since DJ remixes are so ubiquitous nowadays, The Rapture's approach to the mixed tape concept, although interesting, is ultimately pointless.
By Jory Spadea