Tapes
B+
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- The Rapture
- Tapes
- K7
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Anyone who first heard The Rapture via its dance-rock crossover singles will be unsurprised that Tapes, the Brooklyn quartet's first officially released mix-CD (bootlegs of DJ sets have floated around for years) is more interesting as a time capsule of what hip urbanites were dancing to in bars during the mid-'00s than as a DJ mix, per se. That isn't a bad thing: These guys have excellent taste, and they construct an entertaining mélange on Tapes, moving from Ghostface Killah's action-fest "Daytona 500" to D.C. go-go giant Junkyard Band without a second thought, while Martin Circus' bubblegum-Kraftwerk "Disco Circus" goes head-to-head with Arcade Lover's "Fantasy Lines" with real grace. The Rapture has a good line on current happenings as well as the classics, throwing in recent club bangers like South African DJ Mujava's "Township Funk" and "Everybody's Got To Make A Living" by house producer Dances With White Girls (who's signed to a label The Rapture co-runs). The mix doesn't have the kind of sonic arc that implies a narrative, the way many great DJ mixes do—getting from A to B is less important here than checking out the scenery along the way. But The Rapture knows the scenic routes.
