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Story: Jack Foley
WIDELY-regarded as one of the finest new acts to emerge from
America in the past ten years, The Rapture have signed a new worldwide
deal with Mercury Records and release their highly-anticipated
debut album, Echoes, on September 8.
The album has already been preceded by the release of their classic,
House Of Jealous Lovers, on August 25, which will be available
commercially for the first time, since its limited vinyl outing
last year.
The Rapture sound is best described as 'a hybrid of a classic
rock'n'roll Molotov, angular guitars and punk rushes, twisted
funk and bass pounding electronic experimentalism'.
The album, Echoes, was produced and recorded at Plantain
Studios, NYC, with the highly regarded DFA production team of
Tim Goldsworthy and James Murphy.
So who are The Rapture?
Vocalist/guitarist, Luke Jenner, and drummer, Vito Roccoforte,
first got together in early 1998 and immediately captured the
attention of West Coast art-punk labels, Gravity & GSL, which
released their debut recordings in early 1999.
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After touring relentlessly and losing band members along the
way, Vito and Luke grew restless of the instability, decided to
pack all their possessions in the van and move to New York City
- in the hope of finding a fresh start and, maybe, a steady bass
player.
Enter Matt Safer, a music student with a deep appreciation for
the groove of early disco and Philadelphia soul.
The line-up has been rock solid ever since, allowing the trio
to develop and explore disparate interests, piling four on the
floor electro-disco beats on top of Sixties-era pop harmonies
and new wave studio trickery.
In early 2000, the Rapture began a musical friendship with the
DFA production team of Tim Goldsworthy (Mo' Wax, UNKLE) and James
Murphy (founder of The Plantain Recording House in NYC), and after
the dfa team produced both the Out of the Races and Onto the
Tracks EP (Sub Pop) and the Tour Support EP (Insound),
the Rapture became the first band on the new DFA recording label.
The partnership's subsequent collaboration was also the first
release on dfa records - a three-song 12" entitled House
of Jealous Lovers with a remix by electro artist, Morgan Geist
(Metro Area / Environ Records).
Since then, of course, The Rapture have gone from strength to
strength, with, as their name suggests, 'spasms of ecstasy, fits
of violence and pleasure, and a transporting from the here and
now into an otherworldly dimension, perhaps heaven, or perhaps
a sweaty club in lower New York'.
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