HOT CHIP レコード& CD

Review: A warm welcome back to perennial genre-benders Hot Chip, who return to stores after three long years with their eighth album, some 21 years after making their debut. Freakout/Release is no dramatic change in direction, but instead a further distillation of what has always made the band so appealing - a trademark fusion of synth-pop, loved-up house sounds, lilting and sometimes melancholic lead vocals, loose-limbed organic drums, nods to Prince and an ability to craft killer hooks. There are highlights aplenty, from the gravelly live hip-hop funk of 'The Evil That Men Do' (where rapper Cadence Weapon delivers a star turn) and the subtly post-punk influenced, saucer-eyed brilliance of 'Hard To Be Funky' (featuring Lou Hayter), to the classic Hot Chip sing-along flex of 'Time' and the krautrock-tinged 'Out of My Depth'.

Review: It's verging on the incomprehensible to consider the fact this limited 12" release of Look At Where We Are is only the second time Four Tet has remixed Hot Chip (discounting an effort for Joe Goddard's solo endeavour) given their enduring mutual ubiquity in the years since a Hebden remix appeared on a dinky 7" edition of Playboy. The time for a rekindling on wax is appropriate given Hebden's current run of remix form - he's been commissioned to remix roughly 76 per cent of acts you are likely to browse through on Pitchfork this year by our estimation. Alexis Taylor's cooing fragile vocal dominates the opening pitter pattering moments of the A Side Remix before a trademark dovetail into heavily percussive territory. The flipside Dub restricts Taylor's voice to a looped choral rendition, and fans of Hebden or musical soul mate Daphni will be all over this.

Review: The only consistent thing about Hot Chip - apart from the uniform excellence of their tracks - is their ability to shock, surprise, delight and astound time after time. You never know what rhythmical journey they're going to take you on - it could be playful, wayward pop, skewed hip-hop, sun-dappled folk or mad, slow techno, and often it's all of these within the space of one song - but you know that it's going to be worth flicking your ears onto alert. And so it is with "My Piano", their exclusive track on their forthcoming foray into the magical world of K7's evergreen DJ Kicks series. A wistful slice of Hot Chip electronic pop, it utilises that most under-rated of all musical instruments - the piano - in spectacular fashion.

Review: Yes folks, it's finally here - the one you have all been waiting for. Matthew Dear, under his Audion guise (Ghostly International etc), remixes Hot Chip's killer album track "No Fit State" into an awesome techy, electronic workout. Very limited white vinyl 12" promo only.

Review: Import copies include awesome Solid Groove remix.