You will never feel truly alive until you are gunning down a storm-swept road in Iceland, blasting Traffic Jam from Louie Zong’s Rat Taxi to stave off a breakdown. Few will owe their lives to Rat Taxi, but for those who had to follow a red Range Rover through a complete, white sheet of snow, built further and quicker than any other storm thanks to two mountain peaks on either side, they will be thankful for this release. It is incredible what you can happen upon on Spotify when searching for music loud enough to shake you awake after six hours of driving. Zong has put together an excellent, maddening piece of music which gets the heart pumping, the brain ticking and the car thriving in times of great distress.
There is a lot to love about his furious electronic jazz and the Rat Taxi project. From the nostalgia-driven illustrations of an obese rat crafted with graphical advancements from the turn of the century to the ripping electric guitar found within, the instrumental fury and variety are frankly delightful. Play Traffic Jam on a loop and rip through dangerous roads. Push towards the edge, that moment of no return. It comes closer than you like to believe, more often than it should. But they are the makings of us and we do not forget the songs tied to those times, of euphoria or heartbreak. Rat Taxi then may be an unlikely soundtrack to the profound moments of life but it has the endearing qualities of digital fusion and instrumental brilliance which made Ratatat such a joy to engage with. Cheezy Street has the witty directions of being the smartest rat of all, an endearing and often hilarious pitch of smooth bass work and incredible brass.
Gunning it from Vik to Egilsstaðir needs quality music behind it, especially when just forty minutes into the trip, the wind and rush of snow make the drive a near-impossible endeavour. Luck, and luck alone, got us through. But to stave off madness is to find good music to cling to, sounds which can never be revisited without thinking of dances with death and a reflection on mortality. As fun an album as Rat Taxi is, as charming as its front cover and its cool drift through the nights as a rodent worker are, it has a dependable depth to it which can support the terrifying moments in life. Part of this comes from the groovy lines of instrumental work, heard on the likes of Rush Hour and Rise & Shine, something so charming and yet nostalgic about them – like they were lifted from a Gameboy Advance game, a menu screen from the times of your youth and fed through non-existent streets. All we have in times of crisis, in near-death experiences, are our memories.
Pieces like Home Bass and Dumpster Disco only add to this feeling. Less bouncy and urgent than opening track Traffic Jam but this is because they find a cool guitar groove to relax into. Those little interjections of the reality Zong creates here, the laughter in the background or the flickers of life in those imaginary streets, only add to the occasion. Elements of electronic skill and manipulation on an equivalent tone and range as Daft Punk and an exceptional blur of instrumental skill keep Rat Taxi driving. Into the endless night. It may not be serious to a lot of people, a collection of additional instrumentals pieced together with a cool rat on the front cover. But lean into those soft grooves and the skilful half-hour of work here, and it is an often stunning piece of instrumental work.
