Put A Record On: Joe Goddard Steps Away From Hot Chip November 23rd, 2009 | London
With a new Hot Chip record around the corner, it's impressive that the band's main rhythm man, Joe Goddard, has found time to release a solo album. But in the wake of his bandmate Alexis Taylor's own recent solo effort, Rubbed Out, this additional output is a testament to the five-piece outfit's creative constituent parts. Goddard's Harvest Festival reaffirms this prolificacy, while giving space to his compositional dexterity.
The album isn't as lyrically strong as any of Hot Chip's releases—or Taylor's own for that matter—but, then, Goddard has always been stronger with musical arrangement. With the 12 tunes simply named after delicious fruit treats ("Tropical Punch," "Apple Bobbing," "Go Bananas") and sparse lyrics, the album is better appreciated as an instrumental effort. "Lemon & Lime (Home Time)" is one of the most vocal songs, but it's still restricted to the repeated sentence "Take me out, I want to see the morning," while "Pear Shaped" is best described as dub step and the rest of the album makes clear musical reference to UK garage and Aphex Twin.
As good as both Taylor and Goddard's respective solo albums are, they ultimately make a strong case for the existence of Hot Chip as a whole. The two are talented, but their differing skills are better served as complementary rather than in absence. Harvest Festival is a valiant output, but we're still just counting down the days to the next Hot Chip album.
Harvest Festival is out now. For more information, see www.myspace.com/grecoromanmusic.
Put A Record On: Hot Chip Get A Little Help From Their Friends December 22nd, 2008 | London
Christmas is only a few days away and Hot Chip celebrates the holidays with an early present. As one of the best crossover groups to have emerged of late, the London electro pop outfit is known for worthy surprises, but none as refreshing as their latest output. Hot Chip's February album, Made In The Dark, was revamped by legendary musician Robert Wyatt as well as electronic duo Geese—aka Emma and Vince of the Elysian Quartet—and the result is pleasantly reinvigorating.
The EP comes towards the end of a characteristically busy Hot Chip year—in addition to the band's full-length album of the same name, main man Alexis Taylor's solo album Rubbed Out, the usual dance floor busting remixes and relentless touring, the five-piece remained characteristically unstoppable. Wyatt and Geese were roped in to distort four Hot Chip tunes of their choice.
Though none of the famous singles—"Ready For The Floor" and "Shake A Fist"—were tinkered with, songs such as the less notorious but equally good "Whistle For Will" got the treatment, with Wyatt—wait for it—whistling away. Made In The Dark features the ex-Soft Machine frontman singing along through a vocoder, adding a beautiful space dimension to the ballad, while "We're Looking For A Lot Of Love," another slow and amorous serenade, received a combined beating by both Wyatt and Geese, making it more upbeat than the original. Geese take sole control of "One Pure Thought," remixing the dance floor stomper into a soundtrack of dreams.
For a band as adaptable and unpredictable as Hot Cip, this is one holiday treat we're happy to find in our stocking.
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