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Hot Chip: "Made In The Dark"

Release date: Feb. 5, 2008

Astralwerks

http://www.hotchip.co.uk/

4.5 out of 5 stars

Hot Chip's "The Warning" exploded after it's 2006 release, launching the love of electronic quintet worldwide.

After floating around in an uncharted territory of electronic music for a while, Hot Chip started to draw people in with explosive live performances and music that started to move people and saw success with "Over And Over," the band's biggest hit so far.

On the band's third and latest release, "Made In The Dark," Hot Chip takes the best of "The Warning" and adds deeper electronic subtleties and dance beats. They manage to keep the party going a lot longer than their previous releases, because it's obvious on this album they've gotten a lot better at it.

"Shake A Fist" invites listeners into Hot Chip's electronic realm, halfway through testing listeners' ability to hear everything they put into their music, starting off slow and getting quirky and crazy by the end of the noise "game."

To fully appreciate Hot Chip, one listen won't do. Five guys sitting at synthesizers, sometimes with a guitar thrown in here and there, produces hundreds of different sounds, noises, blips, ditties and do-dahs to hear all at once. Layer upon layer slowly unfolds into an electronic bliss that isn't automatically evident for casual listeners.

It's this strong attention to minute details that makes "Made In The Dark" a fun album. Every track - including the slower ballads, such as piano and synth "Whistle For Will" and the electro organ-led "We're Looking For Love" - has something unique to it, from strange sounds to snippy beats.

"Hold On" is a six-minute funk jam that incorporates the greats of several different decades, from the early electronic sounds of the late 1960s and early 1970s, through the days of funk and back to the modern rock of the 1980s and 1990s with distorted, grungy and sometimes wailing guitar-synth riffs.

The title track reinforces the humor of Hot Chip, heard on previous albums on tracks, such as "Keep Fallin" from 2005's "Coming On Strong," with the not-so-tasteful-but-funny line, "I'm like Stevie Wonder, but I can see things." "Made In The Dark" and "Wrestlers" are cleverly written songs about reproduction, the latter track showing the dangerous side of love, with lyrics, such as "Why'd you have to go and fight dirty? Don't fight dirty, don't hit me with the chair."

For fans of all sorts of electronic and dance music, "Made In The Dark" is an instant classic guaranteed to keep any party on its feet. But all music lovers alike will appreciate the musicianship and charisma of these British guys who can make music that's great to listen to off the dance floor as well.

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