Ratatat – Magnifique

Magnifique, the fifth album from Brooklyn-based duo Ratatat, discontinues the naming convention set up with LP3 and LP4. But it could comfortably be called LP5, such is the rigidity of an established formula: old-school prog-guitar wolf in electro-funk's clothing. Save for the odd outlier – the sedate track Drift is the band’s first ballad, of sorts – this is essentially another collection of instrumentals in that now inveterate mould.

You could reasonably find fault in this business-as-usual approach, or in the slightly repetitive, incidental nature of the album (it sometimes feels a bit like a soundtrack for an as-yet unmade film). An indulgent guitar solo in Pricks Of Brightness also veers perilously close to an early Mike Oldfield pastiche. But damn, if there isn’t something immensely satisfying about this stylish, carefully refined mesh; derivative as to be quite unique. This is a band existing in the then and the now, all at once, and somehow pulling it off.