Hot Chip Off The Old Block

Electro: at one end of the spectrum you have the funny-but-embarassing Euro-kitsch of tracks such as Bodyrockers' I Like The Way You Move (I like ze way you comb your h-airrr, etc.). Fortunately for those of us who can't listen to such nonsensical fare with a straight face, there are experimentalist maraca-shaking nerds who speak of monkeys with miniature cymbals...

That's right, Hot Chip have returned and continue to set the bar high for alt-dance indietronica with their fourth album One Life Stand. Jaz first came across these bespectacled eccentrics as relative unknowns supporting dominatrix-era Goldfrapp (then Queen of electro) in 2005. It was love at first blip (or bleep). For dancing synths à la William Orbit circa Barber's Adagio For Strings, and New Order-style dark romance with an uplifting sentiment, check out I Feel Better. Jaz best not inform you that this track is oddly reminiscent of Madonna's La Isla Bonita. Oops...



Jaz x

Take cover!

The XX are of the same school as Hot Chip and Four Tet. No really, they went to the same school. Something tells me the discos at Elliott Comprehensive in Wandsworth don't involve alcohol-free punch and Chesney Hawkes. We still can't get enough of last year's self-titled album, especially the cover Teardrops. Before you exhale an apathetic sigh, this is not yet another inferior Massive Attack remake (could someone tell me if anybody besides the cannabis community actually buys Newton Faulkner CDs?) it's a dark, broody, stripped down version of Womack And Womack's disco classic. You may recall it also being mashed up by Lovestation during those soon forgotten UK garage years. If not, we don't blame you. It was all about DJ Luck & MC Neat.
 
Jaz x