Rapture

Rapture, formed by vocalist and guitarist Luke Jenner (a cross between Cure's Robert Smith and Joy Division's Ian Curtis) and drummer Vito Roccoforte, both formerly of the synth-based new-wavers Calculators, who released Circuit Breaking Silence (1998) and the mini-album Simplicity & Style (1999), debuted in San Francisco as a retro-act that harked back to the new wave with the single The Chair That Squeaks (1998) and the mini-album Mirror (Gravity, 1999): ominous, convoluted and angular post-hardcore (Frames Frames Frames).

Relocating to New York, they enlisted bassist Matt Safer and saxophonist Gabriel Andruzzi and recorded the mini-album Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks (Subpop, 2001), under the supervision of production duo DFA (James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy). The sound changed radically, veering towards the progressive funk-punk of the Talking Heads and the Contortions (Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks, Modern Romance).

The influence of Public Image Ltd's gothic dance-rock is strong on Echoes (Universal, 2003), Rapture's first full-length, produced by DFA (James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and Tim Goldsworthy). Sister Saviour (the most straightforward propulsion, anguished Lou Reed-ian lament, fractured guitar lines) and I Need Your Love resurrect Blondie's disco-punk madness, but the tortured soul of Olio (syncopated poliyrhythm, grotesque synth, discrete piano) and Heaven (one of their older tracks, Jimi Hendrix-ian limping attack, psychedelic coda) brings the Cure to the dancefloor, while the shrill Killing and the convoluted Echoes and especially House of Jealous Lovers (their first single, African-funky-surf beat, neurotic new-wave vocals, atonal guitar) turned dance-music into a self-flagellation process. When they don't dance, they indulge in strange imitations of classic rock: the decadent/fatale stance of David Bowie in the brooding piano-driven kammerspiel of Open Up Your Heart, Neil Young fronting the Who in the transcendental power-ballad Love Is All, the psychedelic trance of the Velvet Underground in the gloomy slo-core dirge Infatuation. The album has enough variety to spawn a whole family of rock, pop and dance bands. The most successful songs achieve a disturbing sense of alienation and frustration by staging rituals that, in the most orthodox new-wave aesthetics, are supposed to be hedonistic but turn out to be the opposite.

Low Income Tomorrowland (Apple Core, 2006) is a creative mix album.

Recycling the same ideas with barely a more assertive production, Pieces Of The People We Love (2006) is certainly far from original but it succeeds in delivering another batch of ammunitions for the dancefloor (Don Gon Do It, Get Myself Into It, The Devil). It fails, though, when it tries to open new avenues of expression. Apparently, it was the producers (DFA) that made the difference on the first album.

Tapes (2008) is a mix album.

In the Grace of Your Love (2011) boasts the piano-driven single "How Deep Is Your Love?", one of their best, but the rest is ridiculous fodder that winks at all sorts of popular styles like a prostitute desperate to cash in anyhow anywhere.