Sometimes a listening experience cannot be extricated from the possible cultural impact of the record, however infinitesimal it may be. Occasionally, it's near-impossible to be completely objective when faced with certain glaring outside influences that don't allow you to review an album purely on its own musical terms. Ratatat's Remixes Volume II is one of those records. Try as I might to say in 300 words how each of Evan Mast and Mike Stroud's re-imaginings of contemporary rap tunes compiled here have the ability to rock a party from twenty paces, there's just something about this album that doesn't sit right with me.
Not to be unfair to Ratatat, as there's an obvious love, respect and knowledge of their source material here which shines through. It's the blog coverage bestowed upon this and its predecessor that plain stinks of the crass co-opting of black culture by the white middle class that Sacha Baron Cohen tried to censure in his Ali G days. The 'Wigga' effect, if you will.
I'm self-aware enough to realise that this review smacks of white liberal guilt, but let's have it right; none of the people lauding this record on the internet are going to go out and buy a UGK or Z-Ro album, are they? If this was released on Swishahouse (suspend disbelief and bear with me), sounding exactly as it does, only with Ratatat's name taken off and replaced with that of Michael '5000' Watts, it would have been marginalised by all areas of the press other than the hip-hop mags. I guess that, in short, I'm trying to say I'm a big enough fan of hip-hop to appreciate these tracks in their original states. I don't need hipster bloggers to validate their worth for me, via the conduit of a vaguely prurient hype-stream.
For the music though…
3/5
http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=2734&band=1583
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