Electro-rockers Ratatat have been on a winning streak since 2001, serving up consistently awesome outbursts of squealing guitar licks and polyphonic, quasi-baroque synth arrangements—the resulting sound lies somewhere between Parisian party music, East Coast indie and instrumental hip-hop. The past year seems to have been especially fruitful creatively: Upon entering the studio in 2009 to record their third album, LP3, the duo of guitarist Matt Stroud (previously a touring guitarist for the likes of Ben Kweller and Dashboard Confessional) and multi-instrumentalist and synth-addict Evan Mast (also known as E*Vax, co-founder of Portland independent label Audio Dregs) found themselves so brimming with ideas that they decided to turn the sessions into two separate releases; the latter, LP4, drops this Monday on XL Recordings. Given Ratatat’s penchant for elaborate studio trickery—involving dizzying stacks of overlaid tracks and a plethora of bizarre, organic sound effects—this second chapter is hardly the straightforward offering its episodic title would suggest. Rather, the pair have meticulously reworked material that was recorded in 2009 and reserved for this second volume, adding live strings and dozens of ethnic instruments to the mix, as well as spoken word vocals from actress and friend Linda Manz. “We were really focused after making LP3, and there was no pressure on us whatsoever,” Stroud says. “It gave us more freedom.” This much is apparent in the horn-laden, swooning stomp of today’s exclusive preview track, “Drugs.”