Ratatat @ Cabaret Voltaire, 1 Aug
A tightly crammed Cab Vol crowd is soon nodding as one in appreciation of the thumping drum loops and outlandish guitar solos
A Google of tonight's support act - Dead Boy Robotics (*) anyone? - returns no MySpace, but maybe it's better that this emo-tronica duo remain anonymous. Their oh-so-ironic yelping and synth-prodding wankery is head-splitting to say the least.
So how especially welcome it is to see the professionals arrive on stage in the skinny, excessively hairy forms of Brooklyn duo Ratatat (****). A tightly crammed Cab Vol crowd is soon nodding as one in appreciation of the thumping drum loops and outlandish guitar solos, and the excited reaction reaches a peak in the awesome Lex. Ratatat really are a band who belie their electronica tag in a live setting, and even unassuming tracks from the recent LP3 like Mi Viejo and Bird Priest are transformed into propulsive, hypnotic attention-grabbers, thanks largely to Mike Stroud's singular slide guitar.
A tired two-song encore is probably unnecessary, but - to be fair - if they hadn't appeased the baying one-more-tune mob, the euphoria might have soured. [Nick Mitchell]