Describing themselves as a band bridging dub, hip-hop and electronic music, they often list On-U Sound and Adrian Sherwood’s productions as their inspirations. Their sympathy towards somehow archaic, but nevertheless thunderous sound from the 2000s and 2010s, the golden era of cosmic dub, bring to mind the way Super Girls & Romantic Boys play with electro and punk rock. Similar sensitivity, similar independent roots, similar nostalgia for the old, however the music – completely different.
RAT consists of two artists from Poznań. They’ve known each other since high school, however for more than 10 years the pursued other, solo projects. Rat One (Witold Skrzypczak) is responsible for the music, utilising the basis of bass and rhythm, and building upon it with various synthesizers, samples, guitar and other instruments, sometimes even, especially during live shows, he shouts and adds backing vocals. His earlier projects include Tempfolder, Hellow Dog and How Dare You Alexis, where he played the drums and, in the case of the latter, sang and played the pads.
What at first was to be just a solo, instrumental project, quickly changed in Skrzypczak’s mind into ideas of songs. Thus, he needed a vocalist. Quickly one was found, and Ratfor (Papa Musta), who may be known from Riddim of Unity or The Menels, joined the duo. What’s more, he also started writing the lyrics to all the songs by the group.
Their everyday work relationship is a long distance one, as Papa Musta lives in Warsaw nowadays, however they do meet up in their Nervous Breakdown Studio in Poznań to polish their ideas. From studio’s windows you can see the downtown and Cytadela park, and it does sometimes take artists’ attention away from the music, as Rat One jokes:
In the summer we often gaze through the windows, as if we were old, countryside grannies. Paps hunts for gorgeous women, I’m trying to catch swallows.
Earlier, the band was called Ratmisfit, but Papa Musta says that Misfit is just they second name which they nowadays use quite seldom, only if it rhymes with something. Still, what does the name RAT stem from? Is it a call back to the legendary reggae group R.A.P. from the 80s? After being asked the question, Rat One answers:
I have much respect for the old reggae squads. I used to listen to R.A.P., Stage of Unity, Bakszysz and others when I was just a little boy. But it’s not the right path to follow when looking for RAT’s emergence. While creating first instrumental pieces of what later became our songs I wanted to convey my sentiment for electronic music of the 90s, for cyberdub bands: Zion Train, Dreadzone, early Thievery Corporation, as well as old-school reggae f.e. Lee “Scratch” Perry, and even pop music.
In March 2017 their first album, entitled simply RAT hit the shelves. The duo published it themselves, under Nervous Breakdown Studio label. The tracks can be found on various streaming channels, and the CD bought during their live shows and through mailorder. One should expect deep dub bass with Jamaican samples and a kind of pulse, to which Ratfor’s vocals sometimes harmonize.
In their most catchy tune, Surwajwer, Musta raps: ‘I’m the dirt, I’m the danger/ I’m everything you don’t want me to be’. The whole heritage of the duo is explained in the song, where the rat is an outcast who gets into places nobody else wants to get. In other song, Klatka [trans. Cage], when singing ‘Who watches you when you eat, when you sleep, what kind of ghost lingers there?’ Ratfor brings out the paranoid climate of the times of ever-present invigilation.
Their album had been ready a year before its official release, so the musicians are bound to be working on some new stuff already. They will surely present some of the new stuff at many upcoming concerts, as in their schedules you can find appearances at Tallin Music Week and Spring Break in Poznań.
Written by Jacek Świąder, February 2017, translated by AS
Discography:
2017 - RAT