Hot Chip

Best known for leading the hipster charge to the dance floor, Hot Chip break into some bold territory on this four-song EP collaboration with 64-year-old British musician Robert Wyatt, founder of influential prog-rock outfit Soft Machine. After working together on a remix of a Wyatt track, they decided to see what would happen if they dug into the Hot Chip catalog. The results will be a serious snooze for anyone thinking “Hot Chip? Yeah, let’s dance!” But for a four-song experimental EP–easily the sort of thing that could be a stopgap project–this is a pretty major success, presenting an alternate universe version of Hot Chip for after-hours listening. The slow songs don't just have to be breathers between the bouncing dance-pop singles; they have a life all their own.

The vocal interplay between Wyatt and Alexis Taylor is consistently affecting, giving the songs a newly restrained grace. They begin with the title track from 2008's Made in the Dark. A somber horn arrangement underscores the fragile vocal, while a prominent mouth harp verges on distraction, but winds up being just a colorful accessory. "Whistle For Will" is the best of the four tracks; it's a rare feat for a project like this to offer improvements over the original, but this track certainly qualifies. Somewhat awkwardly placed toward the end of Made in the Dark, "Whistle For Will" couldn't help but feel a bit anticlimactic; here, Wyatt fleshes it out with a mournful string arrangement and more strong harmonies with Taylor. "We're Looking For A Lot Of Love" features the EP's most inventive instrumentation, a chopped-up collage of whistles and hums. The momentum finally takes a dip on the closing "One Pure Thought," a somewhat cluttered remix by Geese (two members of Elysian Quartet).

—Adam McKibbin
02.16.09

Before The Warning, Hot Chip was poppy, but not exactly pop; their songs had clever ideas, but were missing the pieces they needed to really make an impact. The Warning brought those pieces together with a satisfying click, making the band's music immediate as well as pleasingly off-kilter. Made in the Dark isn't quite as big a leap forward as The Warning was, but it doesn't need to be -- Hot Chip has already hit their stride, and now their pop machinery chugs along at full speed. Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard's dry wit is illuminated by neon melodies and punctuated by attention-getting beats, as it was on The Warning, but that album had clear-cut singles, including "Over and Over" and "And I Was a Boy from School." Here, it's wonderfully unclear which songs are the A-sides, aside from the brilliant lead single, "Ready for the Floor," which was the first clue that Made in the Dark was going to be something special. It builds from a rubber band bassline, piling nervy guitars, synths that sound like they were borrowed from Taco's "Puttin' on the Ritz" or Matthew Wilder's "Break My Stride," and a cheery yet bittersweet melody into a perfect fusion of pop and dance that is definitely ready for the floor. The rest of Made in the Dark boasts some of Hot Chip's most kinetic music, with rhythms and melodies that are just as hyper-articulate as the wordplay: it takes a special kind of perverse wit to name one of the album's most head-noddingly insistent songs "Don't Dance." "Bendable Poseable," on the other hand, is exactly as wiggly as the title implies, and its ragga-tinged spoken word bits show that Hot Chip's sound is more than bendable enough to accommodate almost any styles or influences that Taylor and Goddard want to fit into it.

Made in the Dark expands Hot Chip's emotional range as much as their musical range, swinging from the funky, pissed-off "Shake a Fist" to the stream-of-consciousness pop of "One Pure Thought," a witty, wordy gem that comes across like Paul McCartney backed by New Order. Made in the Dark's main weakness might be its ballads, but that may just be in comparison to its many energetic moments, which are so addictive that it feels like a forced come-down whenever the band slows things down. On their own terms, however, "We're Looking for a Lot of Love" is luminously sad, and the title track's heartfelt simplicity and restraint is impressive. And while "Whistle for Will" and "In the Privacy of Our Love" end the album on a strangely sleepy note, their awkwardness might make them a little sweeter precisely because they're not slick. Without these ballads, Made in the Dark would have the ruthless perfection of a greatest-hits collection; as it is, it's just a very, very good album. Hot Chip has honed their skills so much and so quickly that they're almost unrecognizable from the band that made Coming on Strong just three years before. They're still a quirky band, no doubt, but now they're using those quirks to make their most accomplished album to date. [Made in the Dark was also released with a bonus DVD of live performances of songs including "Shake a Fist," "One Pure Thought," and "Over and Over."] ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide