The Rapture: Too Esoteric For A Saturday Night

The Ibiza template of dance music comes in two emotions: full-on, hands-in-the-air sweaty hedonism or stupefied, wistfully melancholy chill out. The dance-floor smash that made The Rapture's name, House of Jealous Lovers, was one of the few songs that managed to be irresistibly groovy, yet with enough angst to fell the moodiest Goth. Famous for its cowbells, elastic boing-bass and trapped fox yelps, it was the perfect party tune for glammed up misery guts. Of course, the Rapture had been around for ages, releasing two half hour EPs of scratchy punk, twitchy noise-dance and abrasive experiments.

Their second album proper, 'Pieces of The People We Love', is a massive jump forward for the band, essentially abandoning the jerky post-punk of their debut for a smorgasbord of electro, indie, Public Image Ltd. style grooves and the occasional ballad. Despite the first single unfortunately recalling the Stereo MCs, it's a confident, progressive album for a band ingrained in the screaming disco-punk revival they helped start. Produced by Paul Epworth and Danger Mouse, the album even has a cheeky nod to their lo-fi past on Whoo! Alright! Yeah… Uh Huh, which starts off sounding like the tinny recordings of yesteryear, before bursting into vivid Technicolor, like Liquid Liquid goofed up and waving glowsticks. The Rapture say it themselves: "Too esoteric for a Saturday Night."

The multi-instrumentalist that was, erm, instrumental in the broadened palette, providing synth, saxophone and, of course, cowbell, Gabe, tells The Skinny that the album now "sounds like the work of a full band." Associated with two painfully hip producers, one half of DFA and now Paul Epworth, the emphasis has always been on "creative collaboration," with each of the studio wizards eking new sounds from the band. Famous first in Britain, which "ate us up," before America had even made it to the table, their fame was cemented by a famed one-off gig in London. Whilst the whole of the city was in darkness, the power down, one boat opposite the OXO Tower, miraculously, managed to keep some juice to host a Rapture gig that culminated in half the audience on stage singing House of Jealous Lovers, the boat lurching around like it was at high sea and the well-to-do local residents asking the DJ to turn it down as the lights popped back on across the city. "That was a pretty weird gig," Gabe says, "but it was a blast." Since then though, and "after seven years," the band have "toured the world, released an influential single… things have changed."

Now a major band in Britain and climbing around the rest of the world, they've got more money behind them, working with uber-hip producers, producing a video in a roller disco that parodies Jessica Simpson and, in a Scotland friendly piece of censorship, turns one of their lines to "don't talk pish." Their campaign is spearheaded by a website promoting the album which consists of tiny photographs submitted by fans. Referencing the MySpace explosion, it's a piece of PR genius. Glimpsing through the pictures (www.piecesofthepeoplewelove.com) to be spotted are Julian Casablancas, a women bent over showing a nasty looking red thong, Holli Wood who insists that 'it takes money to look this cheap' and a group of scary, Midwich Cuckoo children.

With this new financial clout, thanks be given that the new album's a winner. Displaying much more stylistic diversity than ever before, the Rapture put their funky footprints on Secret Machines style pop-psych, Le Tigre style kitsch-punk and Chemical Brothers style dance, wilfully cosying up to a wider variety of genres than before. Despite the ugly single, the Rapture have bravely moved on, referencing their roots yet tramping new turf. As Gabe says, "it's crazy to hear people still playing House of Jealous Lovers, but we're glad to be moving on."