Divine Rapture

New York-based punk-funk practitioners The Rapture delivered one of the finest records of 2003 with Echoes, a genuinely innovative album which saw the group merge rock and dance music more successfully than any act since the late ’80s/early ’90s heyday of the Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays and Primal Scream. For good measure, the band also threw in a masterful brace of burnt-out, Lou Reed/Blur-style ragged acoustic laments in the shape of ‘Open Up Your Heart’ and ‘Infatuation’, proving that they possess the ability to diversify their sound in the manner of all truly first-rate acts.

But, undoubtedly, it’s on the back of such insanely, impossibly brilliant slices of pulsating dancefloor bliss as ‘House Of Jealous Lovers’, ‘Sister Saviour’ and ‘Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks’ that the ‘Ture have made their name. So, it has to be asked – which do the band prefer: the heady euphoria of clubbing or the up-close ‘n’ personal experience of the traditional rock gig?
“I generally enjoy going to a club more,” replies Mattie Safer, The Rapture’s bassist, keyboard player and occasional vocalist. “We love going to see bands live and that’s where our roots lie, but with clubbing – providing you’re going to see someone with a decent record collection – you’re hearing the best of each artist; there’s no filler.
“Whereas with bands, you’re going to see a 45-minute set and there are usually peaks and troughs – certainly the potential for nosedives is always there.”
A key factor in The Rapture’s development has been their association with über-hip dance producers the DFA (aka New York underground guru James Murphy and Mo’wax groove technician Tim Goldsworthy), unofficial curators of the NY club scene. Although the band are keen to forge their own identity and avoid accusations of enjoying an easy ride on the back of the duo’s patronage (other DFA clients include the superlative Pop Group/PiL/Clash-influenced collective Radio 4), Safer nonetheless concedes that Goldsworthy and Murphy’s finely-honed rhythmic sensibilities were crucial in the evolution of the band’s unaffected sound.
“The idea of merging dance and rock in a more unselfconscious style was something we found mutually exciting,” says Mattie. “We met them through a fairly random encounter, although we bonded very quickly over the idea of collectively trying to define ourselves in some new way. It was to do with picking the things that were historically – and currently – really exciting about live rock music, and then blending it with the things that we loved about clubbing.
“I thing the main thing was to try and do it without the contrivance that was commonplace among a lot of bands here in New York at the time. So we sequestered ourselves in a building in the West Village in the summer of 2000 and made that first record for Sub Pop, which of course was never released! But that was a pretty steep learning curve and definitely stood us in good stead for Echoes.”
This writer has the intermediary offices of one Bret Easton Ellis to thank for inadvertently exposing him to The Rapture – since it was 12 months ago I was seated in a Dublin cinema watching Roger Avary’s adaptation of The Rules Of Attraction, and wondering who was responsible for the fantastic John Lydon and PiL-sounding number soundtracking the Halloween party scene.
“It’s funny, a fair number of people have said to us they got into the band on the back of that movie,” says Mattie. “It’s cool, although, ironically, I didn’t think it was a particularly good film. The story behind our song’s inclusion is that Shannon Sossamon (achingly beautiful actress who plays Lauren in Rules – P.N.) heard ‘Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks’ and brought it to attention of the music supervisor on the movie.
“It was right around the time we were trying to get out of the Sub Pop deal, and we didn’t have anyone championing us, so to be honest we were thankful for any exposure we could get. So, more power to her.”

Echoes is available now. The Rapture play The Village in Dublin on February 10.