Albums

Hot Chip - Made In The Dark

Edmund Townend 31/01/2008

Rating: 4/5

Hot Chip are building tenfold on their strange percussion and even stranger synth sampling goodness, in their new album Made In The Dark, creating masterfully catchy and dancey epiphanies. Sure, the free-reign experimentation may grate on their new rave followers, but that's because they aren't. They're 'Homework'-era Daft Punk for the rock kids.

On Made in the Dark they have become far past sampling on a small scale, and know the importance of a good percussion arsenal, as those are the two main elements in their music, especially from The Warning. To be outlandish is to describe Made In The Dark as 'prog dance' at some points, however, you know when you're dancing in your computer chair, it's bloody good.

If you have ever seen Hot Chip live, you'll know it's a marvel to behold - six grown men tapping away at various instruments in the manner of intrigued children, and at some points in the album, the live feeling comes through, the noises emitted from each strange instrument seem random and produced in a fit of dancing. There are so many different elements that Hot Chip use in their songs, it could take hours to dissect each song and even then, you'd probably miss something. The throw around melodies are definitely clashing for those reared in the norm, but if you enjoy the experimental side of Hot Chip's music then you'll be excited by them. It's for certain that Made In The Dark is far more experimental and challenging than The Warning, and if you were barely holding onto the weirdness of that album, you'll lose your grip on this one. The progress Hot Chip have made seems odd, as there are definitely more elements of different styles. From the hip-hop inspired 'Wrestlers' to math-rock stylings in 'Hold On', they definitely know how to stretch the boundaries of their ambiguous genre.