(Domino)
The British dance-pop favourites make forays into the wilder side, but their mellow tempo prevails
Indefatigably pleasant, Hot Chip have long specialised in steady-state club pop, powered more by melancholy than abandon. The title track of their eighth album, the promisingly named Freakout/Release, declares a shift towards proper shit-losing catharsis. “Wild, beast, freakout, release!” growls a vocoder as some stark electro-funk lurks beneath. A distorted guitar line completes the picture of a band throwing well-appointed tastefulness to the wind, querying their own love of music into the bargain. Co-producers Soulwax are audibly in the studio, egging them on.
Spoiler alert: it’s false advertising. Sure, some strides are made towards messiness. On Down, the disco-funk album opener, singer Joe Goddard swaps his usual evolved restraint for something like tongue-in-cheek libidinality. But Hard to Be Funky, a lovely, downtempo glide that features the guest vocals of Lou Hayter, once of New Young Pony Club, nails Hot Chip’s dilemma with self-deprecating humour. “It’s hard to be funky when you’re not feeling sexy,” Goddard notes. “And it’s hard to feel sexy when you’re not very funky.”
Continue reading...by Kitty Empire via Electronic music | The Guardian
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