Hot Chip
Why Make Sense?
(Domino)
Recorded in the same residential Oxfordshire studio that gave Django Django's recent album such gloss and featuring the full seven-piece band recording together live for the first time, Hot Chip notch up their 15th year together and their sixth album with an accomplished set of songs that runs from blissed-out disco to contemplative soul balladry and throws in contributions from De La Soul's Kelvin Mercer (aka Posdnuos) and Green Gartside of Scritti Politti. Viewed from the perspective of their various side-projects, particularly Joe Goddard's dancefloor-friendly duo The 2 Bears and Alexis Taylor's more pastoral improvisational quartet About Group, this sometimes feels like an album pulling in different directions. The slow-moving White Wine And Fried Chicken, for example, gives full vent to Taylor's soulful edge while the choppy electro-funk of Started Right puts Goddard in the driving seat. But at the same time, it's clear with every passing year that Hot Chip are making out of their formative influences - Prince, hip hop, disco and Detroit techno - something that's quintessentially British. Or, to hone it even further, quintessentially London. In that sense, they're The Kinks of their generation.
Barry Didcock
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