Joe Goddard (the low one) and Alexis Taylor (the high one), the main men behind London’s addictive, laid-back electropop outfit Hot Chip, have something on their minds. Call it a sort of metallic indie disco, soul-fed and calibrated with a keen sense of the ridiculous. It’s all rather excellent.
Hot Chip keep telling us, through many of their songs, that they’re “laid back”. The truth is, though, that on their new album, The Warning, Hot Chip have raised the dance stakes in a way that is anything but laid back. Though still willing to deviate into soulful Kings of Convenience-style harmonies and occasionally tease the listener with tongue-in-cheek images, it’s clear from “Careful’s” opening outburst of shuffling garage beat that Hot Chip are concerned with pushing their sound in a new direction, one that will have you moving along with them. It’s a step away from Prince and a step towards DFA heroes LCD Soundsystem, just a step, but a noticeable one.