Remember the time when you ate a Hot Chip? Remember the way that it burnt your lip?
Hot Chip - "The Ass Attack"
http://download.yousendit.com/8650C92562398D91
I remember the first time I sampled Hot Chip. It was in 2004, around the time of the release of their first LP, Coming On Strong; the track was Playboy, their lead single from the album. The loud/soft vocals, the synths (this was during a time when "guitar" music was undergoing somewhat of a comeback, and so electronic noises were a rarer thing than in 2008, when every other band is beeping like a malfunctioning gameboy), and the strange juggernaut of a chorus, with its faux-gangsta posturing, were enthralling. I went out and bought the single (the Wimbledon HMV has always had a surprising selection of limited release stuff), then, in a fit of unusual philanthropy, instead of keeping it gave it to a friend for his birthday, along with a copy of Absolution and the My Iron Lung EP (although I did get to burn the b-sides). He hated it.
"Driving in my Peugeot, hey-ay, ay-ay, 20 inch wheels with the chrome now, hey-ay, ay-ay, blazing out Yo La Tengo, hey-ay, ay-ay, driving round Putney with the top down, hey-ay, ay-ay."
Hot Chip - "Playboy"
http://download.yousendit.com/AEFFFB5E31049F51
Listening back to Playboy now, you can see how much and how little Hot Chip have changed. All the elements of their current sound are there - the soulful voices, the now-fashionable computer noises, the irony and undercurrent of mock-threat (playing on their own image as perceived geeks), lyrically, the struggles of love, and most importantly their killer songwriting ability. All that's missing is the ironic guitar solo.
I didn't pick up on Hot Chip again until 2006, with The Warning, and that song. "Over and Over" is still their biggest hit, and is a fantastic mix of lyrical and musical hooks, which, like Playboy, builds and builds as the track plays on. My friend promptly developed an interest in the band. But the thing is, it's not really a Hot Chip song. That's not to say they didn't write it, but rather that, as you'll know if you have the album, it's a red herring as far as their records are concerned. The rest of The Warning is mainly downbeat, although no worse for that, yet somehow, on the basis of this one track, Hot Chip acquired this reputation as a “Dance band.” (Possibly also due to their use of electronic music, which can get acts pigeonholed). Thankfully, they’re far more complicated than that.
My favourite track on The Warning is not “Over and Over,” or even ”Look After Me” (despite the fact that I can imagine the five of them doing the 90s boy-band stool-singing routine to it, which always brings me out in the giggles) but rather the sublime “So Glad To See You.”
Hot Chip - “So Glad To See You”
http://download.yousendit.com/46ACF20573E8E2CE
Hot Chip circa "Coming On Strong"
After buying The Warning, I felt I had to go back, to see where Playboy fitted into this, and finally bought Coming On Strong, which I’d been considering buying for nigh on 2 years now (teenage budgets are small ones, alas). The album has less of a kick to it than the two following (something to do with production, I’d guess), and their influences are more disparate and less integrated than on previous offerings, but it’s still a very fine, if laidback, collection of songs. That’s no criticism, there’s no need to get offended.
From the Down With Prince single, released just before the album, this b-side demonstrates the Chip’s white boy funk, demonstrates the guitar solo missing from Playboy, and references the long-running Flake ad campaign.
Hot Chip - “Sexual Chocolate”
http://download.yousendit.com/657FEC372703A6C7
Now, in 2008, we have Made In The Dark.
Enough has been said about the record that I don’t need to go on for too long, but suffice to say that again Hot Chip haven’t quite produced what was expected of them. Another hit single demonstrates that not only was Over and Over not a fluke, but the band can write these things on demand - Alexis (he of the high vocal parts and large-framed glasses) has said in interview that the main reason for Ready For The Floor was the keep the label happy. This suggests that the band wilfully contradict the expectation that they’ll deliver a string of “bangers,” because their interests lie to a more left-field place than that, and that they’re only going to be the band they want to be, and not bow to expectation. Apart from their live shows, where I hear they blow the place apart J.