Some bands hit the nail on the head with unusual strength when naming themselves. The duo known as Pit er Pat are one such group, capturing the core of their sound – a rhythm heavy rumble that relies heavily on the slithery drumming of Butchy Fuego and Fay Davis-Jeffers’ clamoring keyboard runs – in one succinct bit of onomatopoeia. Together, the two create a thrilling and somehow soothing sound, but also one that is impossible to pin down. Just as you ready yourself for the rolling intensity of their work on their 2005 LP Shakey, they lighten their touch or stick a wrench in the works over the course of a 24-minute deconstruction of Oneida’s “Sheets Of Easter”.
Their latest work finds them shimmying into a new venue entirely. Conceived for a live performance at the All Tomorrow’s Parties fest, and easing into a new life as a duo, Pit er Pat have decided to embrace their new limitations, allowing them to plot a new course. Gone, or at least hidden under layers of other noises, are Fuego’s fleet snare rolls, replaced by programmed beats. And Davis-Jeffers’ keyboards have taken a back seat in the place of more subtle synth playing and guitar lines. They don’t run terribly far from their comfort zone, but it is in those places where they are swinging jauntily through the worlds of dub and hip-hop (see the Timbaland-inspired “Water”) that Entertainer gets very interesting.
The duo is also allowing themselves to ride an idea out for a lot longer on record than ever before. Live, they are more prone to let songs roll and roll and roll with no end in sight (thank God), but they’ve rarely stuck it out in the studio. With their new reliance on drum machines, augmented by Fuego’s percussive fiddling, they take a more electronica-style or Afrobeat approach, letting the high-stepping rhythms of “Emperor of Charms” and the circular pings of the Raincoats-y “Summer Rose” run free. It amps up the considerable energy the band exhibits throughout and gives Davis Jeffers more time to tangle us up in her quizzical lyrics. Like a good acid trip or a downstream boat ride, you needn’t fight their steady current. For maximum enjoyment, just go with it.
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