The Ratazanas

It all began in 2005. Youngsters André and Luis had nothing better to do other than spend some summer-days laying down a couple of grooves at an improvised homemade studio with no serious gear. In the beginning of 2006, they decided to put a band together. That’s when The Ratazanas officially kicked off. Despite some success (the group won several garage-band contests), the two founding members were not happy with the musical outcome of the band. Therefore, after only six months in business, major readjustments were made to the band, leading to the exit of five of its original members and to the inclusion of its actual musicians: Edu, Petrov, Rosicky and Morais. It was the beginning of the year 2007. Having finally gathered the right people, The Ratazanas locked themselves down and deeply studied Jamaican reggae. In the end of 2007, the band was finally ready to throw some live gigs again; they opened up for The Aggrolites and The Slackers, both in Lisbon and Granada, amongst others. In September of 2008, they decided to record their first album (Ouh La La!!), with Moon Invaders’ and Caroloregians’ mastermind, Nico Leonard, on the controls. The recordings came along surprisingly good, eventually catching the eye of Grover Records. The German-based label not only decided to release their first work but also to promote the guys’ first european tour, putting them on board with reggae-legend Roy Ellis (Mr. Symarip) for the famous “Skank Around X-mas Tree” Tour (2009). In the meanwhile, The Ratazanas had already performed some live shows in Spain, including an appearance with lovers-rock superstar Susan Cadogan at the Rude Cat Festival. In 2010, the band kept on playing live as much as they could. They returned to Spain and Germany for several more shows with Susan Cadogan. The feedback was extremely positive, both for its live gigs and for the first album (so positive that two of the LP’s tracks were used by Mr. T-Bone in his latest work Mr. T-Bone and Friends). This encouraged The Ratazanas to start thinking about a second LP. Thoughts were made real in September of 2010, when the band headed to newly-born Pum Pum Hotel Studio, in Charleroi, to record a second full-length with Nico Leonard again as the producer and Music With Soul Records’ front-man, Alex Figueira, on the pre-production. The album, entitled Lick It Back, talks about histories, myths, historical personages and episodes, in an old-fashioned “Ratazanian” way. Their version of “history” may not be real, but their passion for showing groovy reggae across Europe is a “historical” fact. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.