Rapture, The

The Rapture - Tapes
Reviewed by Sadie O., 11/29/08
One long disco mixtape with some fun funk, hip hop, and serious disco in the early tracks. All tracks run together. Tracks 14-16 all the same instrumental with slightly different kinds of electronics. By the end I had a bad headache from the hour-plus of disco/club beat, but if you take it in shorter doses or with the proper drugs, it’s terrific fun.
FCCs on track 2 (damn you, Ghost!) Tracks 3, 4 and 21 KILL.
1. 0:32 shakers and rumbles, electric guitar
2. 3:02 FCCs: “shit”, “fuck” **repeated Blaxploitation funk guitar line, Ghost vocals. Gets a great funky beat at end.
3. 3:19 ****funky percussion, old school groove with female chorus, male rap.
4. 3:34 ****slow 70’s-style funk, heavy and KILLER. Why have the Bar-Kay’s been hiding for so long? These guys used to back Otis!
5. 3:30 ***disco! Yay! Disco! Yay! Get your Gay on and head for GG park on Sunday! (Seriously, this is awesome…)
6. 3:04 ***disco with chimes, blats. Instrumental, fun.
7. 2:46 **uptempo simple disco beat, female recitation of native tribes – very goofy. I could see Lucille Ball acting out to this.
8. 2:21 ***piano-based uptempo orchestral disco instrumental, really well done.
9. 2:47 **uptempo disco with serious bass, female vocals, apparently about the mile-high club…
10. 2:36 ***uptempo makossa groove with disco backbeat, lots of percussion, instrumental. Production goes back and forth between murky and sharp, for some reason.
11. 4:59 *uptempo bass-driven disco, drum and bass with smooth groove keyboards. Very repetitive, with sole word “passion” slinking in occasionally.
12. 3:38 **same beat, male soul vocals, very Prince-y. Mostly beat and percussion. Suddenly goes full-on disco mid-track.
13. 3:04 ***uptempo dance beat with blats and wheezes and no bass. Female soul vocals. Surprisingly groovy.
14. 4:42 ***beats ‘n’ blats. Now shake it, dammit! Instrumental, builds.
15. 2:57 **marching drums and squeepy electronic intrumental.
16. 1:32 **beats and squomps, mostly instrumental, until falsetto vocal line repeats.
17. 4:53 ***beat and vocal line continues, but builds with bass blats, gets seriously club.
18. 1:29 *goofy electronics
19. 4:17 **uptempo club beat with piano and vocals just saying “down”, rather jazzy in tone, repetitious.
20. 3:17 ***club beat, spacey electronics, bits of apparent sci-fi dialog.
21. 5:02 ****uptempo piano chords, Isaac Hayes feel, Richie Havens singing, even sax. Nice!
22. 6:23 **uptempo club beat with squeeps and piano chords, both laid-back and urgent. Moments of almost churchical solo piano. LOOOONG fade.