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.