RAKAM

If you asked someone to find the antithesis of the above act, they’d probably return with something by Rakam. Thick baselines, disco beats and wacky samples fill this alternative endeavor into electronica, which, at times, sound like a new-romantic stuck inside a computer game. He even reminded me a little of former BUMP star Ira Lee, if not so much in terms of style, then more so in the often tongue-in-cheek nature of the delivery. Although it does sound like Rakam is having more fun. - Bloody Underrated

Channeling the spirit of disco, funk and library music, Rakam conjures visions of nocturnal metropoles splashed with neon pink, gold and green. Stranger Things Before makes 14 offerings of back-alley side-stepping and finger-snapping melodies that haunt brains and headphones. Synths make passage from the realm of the smooth to the crispy, carried by portly bass expressions. Peppered throughout by direct communications with the organic, the occasional innocent guitar peeks out, if only to hide upon arrival of the precipitating groove. A veritable spectre of Montrealean cool. - Weird Canada

Perhaps the most enjoyable thing about Rakam‘s Stranger Things Before is how easy it is to imagine it never leaving the bedroom it was clearly created in. It could fairly be described as an attempt at pop music, but it exists in a space carved out entirely by its own gleefully freewheeling invention, and seems motivated exclusively by the giddy realization that there need not be a limit to what form that invention takes.
The New Wave DIY disco strut of the album’s only French language song, “Le Jazz dans la Rue,” is buoyed brilliantly by Marc-André Roy’s exaggerated cool-guy croon, reaching peaks of impassioned warbling that recall a Francophone Patrick D. Martin only to be interrupted by a surprisingly delicate Casiotone harpsichord arrangement. Another standout, “Long Island Beaches,” is about as close as Rakam gets to a plausible love song and veers into slightly more typical synth pop territory, albeit with some spastic drum machine programming and another run at a “baby’s first Bach” harpsichord interlude. The album’s instrumentals are consistently excellent, especially the wonderfully developed “Ocean Liner,” which owes equal debts to Brian Eno and 8-bit video game soundtracks, and shades its own complexity with its charmingly understated lo-fi sound and more than occasional missed notes. That juxtaposition is probably the greatest strength of Stranger Things Before, as it allows Rakam to maintain a level of intimacy while simultaneously being as wildly expansive and imaginative as they care to be. Stranger Things Before is available on RAKAM’s bandcamp.

This post first appeared as part of our New Zero Canada column on Berlin’s No Fear of Pop. - Silent Shout

We wrote about Rakam‘s Le Jazz Dans La Rue a little while ago and in the interim we’ve not stopped listening to their excellent album, Stranger Things Before. Because we want everyone to love them forever and always, and get all up in their bandcamp buying their album, I’m posting another gem. This one features madcap falsetto, some daring drum machine programming, and is notable for featuring the lyric “I had to swim in the river of Mountain Dew” and somehow still being the most plausible love song on the record. - Silent Shout

I have a confession to make. We must have been sleeping and we missed this when it came out and none of you should ever forgive us. This track comes from RAKAM‘s record Stranger Things Before and it is absolutely mind-bogglingly good. Super-slinky, playful, new hotness. Like a more electronic Patrick D Martin except in French and way better. Build your life around it. - Silent Shout

Perhaps the most enjoyable thing about Rakam's Stranger Things Before is how easy it is to imagine it never leaving the bedroom it was clearly created in. It could fairly be described as an attempt at pop music, but it exists in a space carved out entirely by its own gleefully freewheeling invention, and seems motivated exclusively by the giddy realization that there need not be a limit to what form that invention takes. The New Wave DIY disco strut of the album's only French language song, "Le Jazz dans la Rue", is buoyed brilliantly by Marc-André Roy's exaggerated cool-guy croon, reaching peaks of impassioned warbling that recall a Francophone Patrick D. Martin only to be interrupted by a surprisingly delicate Casiotone harpsichord arrangement. Another standout, "Long Island Beaches", is about as close as Rakam gets to a plausible love song and veers into slightly more typical synth pop territory, albeit with some spastic drum machine programming and another run at a 'baby's first Bach' harpsichord interlude. The album's instrumentals are consistently excellent, especially the wonderfully developed "Ocean Liner", which owes equal debts to Brian Eno and 8-bit video game soundtracks, and shades its own complexity with its charmingly understated lo-fi sound and more than occasional missed notes. That juxtaposition is probably the greatest strength of Stranger Things Before, as it allows Rakam to maintain a level of intimacy while simultaneously being as wildly expansive and imaginative as they care to be.

Stranger Things Before is available on RAKAM's bandcamp. - No Fear of Pop

Marc-André Roy has captured the best of video games and cheesy television soundtracks in the analogue synth off Stranger Things Before. The effortlessly dancey “Le jazz dans le rue” could be Montréal’s new electro pop anthem. - Pop Montreal

It's the "I really dug these records in 2011" episode
of New Shit (according to AJ, who is not the only host of the
show, but the longest running host pulling new shit from
the mail bin to your radio since 2009.)

The problem : the small leaning tower of recordings
is a wee too tall for 2 hours. Some good shit is gonna
be left outta the game. - New Shit Radio