It all began last spring with the release of “House Of Jealous Lovers,” a single that blew the minds of dance enthusiasts and piqued the interest of glossy magazines. Here was a so-called indie-rock band completely shifting gears and finding itself on dance charts as well as college-radio playlists. With several major labels interested in signing the group, some serious decisions had to be made. One thing the Rapture would not give up, which led to the year-long wait for the album to be released, was creative input from producers James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy—best known as DFA (Death From Above)—who helped create the long-awaited Echoes. The album is a tight combination of songs that blends everything from house music to punk, funk, disco and pop mixed in the format of a 5-a.m., drug-induced DJ set. The title track fuses Gang Of Four bass lines with hand claps, cowbells and Luke Jenner’s John Lydon-like vocals; “Killing” offers more disco-funk bass work, along with dirty punk guitars that explode at just the right moment and spastic call-and-response choruses; and the charming, ballad-like “Love Is All” slows things down as Jenner sweetly croons, “Love is all my crippled soul will ever need.” The Rapture may have kept us waiting for a year with Echoes, but only a real cynic would be disappointed with the results.

MAGNET spoke with Jenner and drummer Vito Roccoforte.

What are your thoughts on the finished product?
Jenner: I’ve had lots of thoughts about the album; it’s been done for a year. I just really want other people to hear it and get their thoughts on it.
Roccoforte: I don’t think we had any idea what Echoes would turn out being when we started recording. It was over such a long period of time that things changed and evolved throughout the process. Overall I personally am very happy with it. I think it marks a key point in our band being our first proper full length done in a studio with producers. I see it as kind of a beginning.

What’s your take on the hype surrounding this album? Do you feel pressure because of it?
Jenner: I don’t really feel any pressure in terms of touring, other than being married and not being home. I don’t really feel pressure from the hype, either.

Having worked with James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy must’ve had a big influence on Echoes.
Jenner: I don’t think they influenced us in terms of songs or our musical taste, but in terms of production and giving us time and letting us experiment, they had an influence. We probably would have put out an indie-rock-sounding record if we didn’t work with them.

Why do you think critics have a problem classifying what you do?
Roccoforte: It seems to me that people have had no problem trying to classify us. I hear new shit every week for what kind of band we are. The evolution has gone something like this: post-punk, no wave, post-post-punk, new wave, new new wave, new no wave, electro, electroclash, electropunk, punk funk, disco punk, disco pogo, indie dance ... I guess my point is that, in the end, it doesn’t really matter.

Do you think the Happy Mondays comparison is valid? Like that band, the Rapture seems to have introduced dance music to people who like rock.
Roccoforte: I guess I can see some parallels. We all really like the Happy Mondays and probably relate to them more than some of the other bands we are compared to from that time period, like Gang Of Four. And I think that one of the things that we do relate to a little more strongly is that I feel like the Happy Mondays seemed to be trying to be a dance band rather than use dance elements in their music.