Ratatat Unexpectedly Return from Five-year Hiatus with Pre-Coachella Single, "Cream On Chrome" (XL Recordings)

"We've been up in a beach house in Long Island recording for the past month... We have four or five songs in-the-works," Ratatat guitarist Mike Stroud revealed to Rolling Stone just about four years ago at Coachella 2011. "It's sounding new — much more aggressive than the last album. Lots of guitar that sounds like guitar, not keyboard," Stroud continued concerning the recording process behind their long-rumored tentatively titled "LP5." "About to play this set at Coachella. Check out our new single "CREAM ON CHROME" [fourth] song of the set," @ratatatmusic nonchalantly, and somewhat cryptically, Tweeted over the weekend preceding their late night Coachella 2015 set . It's Mike Stroud and bassist-percussionist E*vax (Evan Mast)'s first proper single in roughly five years; although an official release date has yet to be announced, Consequence of Sound additionally notes that Ratatat's new album "will arrive this summer through XL Recordings." "Cream On Chrome" was initially premiered online without any prior notice in the form of a largely still YouTube upload, which was then augmented with a companion 4-minute long live performance following their Saturday night set.


"Cream On Chrome" almost sounds like something along the lines of a slightly more beefed up, Rock-influenced, and a little less Electro-Dance-inspired version of modern French Disco-House innovators, Justice, which very well could be Ratatat's typical M.O.; as I've honestly, only heard their impeccable Ratatat Remixes, Vol. 1-2 (2004-07) and their Kid Cudi & MGMT-assisted smash single, "Pursuit of Happiness" from Cudi's Man On The Moon: The End of Day (2009). However, in any case, it would seem as though Ratatat are back with a vengeance from their self-imposed five-year hiatus since their Coachella performance, they've uploaded the full-length studio version of "Cream On Chrome" to iTunes and it would seem XL Recordings plan to unveil their proper "LP5" release date soon enough, as well. In the meantime, I would strongly recommend attempting to track down your personal own copies of Ratatat Remixes, Vol. 1-2, which feature 28 critically-acclaimed Indie Electro-Rock-tinged remixes of tracks from everyone from Dizzee Rascal to Entourage-featured emcee, Saigon.