Gig played on 09/10/06

As the NME continues its ham-fisted bid to herd The Kids into a pen bearing the sign 'nu-rave', you begin to wonder if the punk-funk scene was all just a dream. The big-shots at that magazine are operating, of course, at the ruthless behest of 21st century market forces, rather than a dynamic vision of music and its future, as they perhaps once did. However, as they trumpet the arrival of a new youth movement with as much life and sense as a goggle-eyed rave monkey who's not been to bed for two days, we return to The Rapture, who, along with James Murphy's LCD Soundsystem, were the pioneers of all that we were reportedly excited about little more than two years ago.

With Murphy currently absent - save for a continuing onslaught of blistering remixes with the DFA - and hopefully recording a fresh masterpiece, his former charges are back on planet rock with "Pieces Of The People We Love". Now sadly stripped, rather acrimoniously, of Murphy's production head and hands, Concorde 2 is tonight still hot and sweaty for this comeback. And while questions remain not only about where exactly all the other so-called punk-funkers have gone, but also how much red meat there is on the new album's bones, Brighton demands a party.

The Rapture prove to be more than capable of providing the electrocuting soundtrack. The debate over the worth of Paul Epworth and Danger Mouse's production on the new LP, and the absence of Murphy, is immediately cast aside as the NYC four-piece crash through a palpably exciting opening trio of "Heaven", "Sister Savior" and "Out Of The Races". Luke Jenner, Matty Safer, Gabriel Andruzzi and Vito Roccoforte - given a personal introduction by Jenner, presumably for having the coolest name in the world - are a group whose bold physicality demand to be seen.

The new LP has a number of moments that might be considered 'contenders', one of which - "Whoo! Alright-Yeah...Uh Huh" - has perhaps overtaken "House Of Jealous Lovers", which gets tonight's wildest reception, as The Rapture's greatest feat. Another is "Get Myself Into It", which somehow belies the troubling inclusion of a saxophone and dumb lyrics to irresistibly spark both the head and the feet. "Whoo! Alright-Yeah...Uh Huh", meanwhile, is quite simply fantastic, the machine-gun guitar funk almost forcing Yahoo! Music to walk off and immediately buy a t-shirt from the merchandising stand bearing the incomprehensible song title.

Towards the end, just before the dark disco trance of emphatic closer "Olio", the band storm through another new track, "The Sound", sprinting from the opening mangled noise and gassy piston synths to the frantic outré, as Jenner hoists his guitar above his head and generates wave after wave of wiry feedback scree. Through it all, The Rapture look as though they don't give a sh*t about anything, least of all the value of any hysterical, hair-brained music scene and their place within it.

by Ben Gilbert