May 19, 2009

Album review: Various Artists A Bugged Out! Mix by Hot Chip

Alexis and the boys take a techno trip without losing the fun

8 / 10 Ain’t no party like a Hot Chip party – as long as you don’t mind an odd ratio of hotties to boys with mini-screwdrivers in their top pockets. Hot Chip make for fun techno DJs because they’re distant admirers of Germanic minimal burble rather than compromised scene insiders. You’ll wonder how you ever lived without Extrawelt & Morelle or Kollektiv Turmstrasse, while concealed in the throbbing minimal goodness is a spiffing new Hot Chip track: the hypnotic miminal doo-wop of ‘Take It In’. Disc two is Hot Chip’s boozy house party selection starting with a load of daft calypso, then becomes amusingly polarised between sparse disco-punk and ’80s soul. There’s hardly a duff track on it, although the Dizzee/Terence Trent D’Arby mash-up is not for the faint-hearted.

Sam Richards

More on this artist:
Hot Chip NME Artist Page
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