Song(s) of the Day # 2,582 Rats on Rafts

 

I should get round to writing about this. I've been listening to it enough over the last few weeks after all. Rotterdam band Rat's On Rafts fourth Excerpts from Chapter 3; The Mind Runs a Net of Rabbit Paths. The vaulting ambition and also essential obscurity of their obsessions are clearly apparent immediately. If the record that accompanies this grandiose title doesn't exactly clarify matters, it does put it into context.

This is dystopian art. Choose your own favourite; Brave New World, 1984, Farenheit 451, Logan's Run.The record is extremely cinematic in terms of its projection, creating a set of highly heightened dramas in the listeners head. You don't really need to see the promo that go along with this, you can run them in your head. Immediate reference point, The Clash's London Calling.

The immediate musical precedents seem to be Bowie's Diamond Dogs and Jeff Wayne's War of the World's.The Mind Runs echoes both in terms of its frantic grenetic urgency, although it definitely feels that this was made on a smaller budget. Worked out and shot between a set of close friends rather than scripted and filmed on the back lots of Hollywood.

It's actually quite good fun, if you don't take it all too seriously. This is really the stuff of B Moves. The musical artist I'm most reminded of in this respect is Arcade Fire and all their relentless, claustrophobic intensity. As with The Fire I really think there's more style than substance here, Rat's On Rafts can seem a bit silly if you don't buy into their conceits. Come on guys, take your outfits off, time for tea.

But while the illusion holds The Mind Runs is certainly a diverting illusion. One you might like to come back to, as I've certainly done over the past fortnight. There are also definite hints that there is more and better to come from Rats on Rafts. I'll definitely be watching out for their next. For now this will certainly do.