Ratatat Announce <i>LP4</i>

BY Greg PrattPublished Apr 28, 2010

Instrumental-loving electronic duo Ratatat have been doing more than collaborating with Kid Cudi lately; they've been recording their fourth album, and we now know the record is just around the corner.

The NYC band (Mike Stroud and Evan Mast) will drop LP4 on June 8 via XL Recordings. It follows up (c'mon, what else?) LP3, which came out in 2008. Despite a lot of the new album being recorded at the same time as LP3, the Ratatat are calling LP4 "weirder" than its predecessor, saying it has a "much braver approach to the arrangements." In the press release, they also add that it uses a wider range of instruments than previous records and even has a full string section.

On top of this, the record features several spoken word interludes, most of which come from an unusual source: an interview that Mast did with American actress Linda Manz. While Mast was trying to clear a spoken sample of Manz from Days of Heaven, he ended up, to his surprise, on the phone directly with Manz. This ended up with Mast going over to Manz's house, interviewing her, then using samples from that interview on the album.

Of course, that's the cover up above.

Although no dates have been announced yet, Ratatat will be touring North America in the summer and fall.

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