Hot Chip Freakout / Release Album & Show Review
Album Review - Freakout / Release
I am going to start out with the comment that this is one of my favourite albums of Hot Chip’s. Every song tells the same positive and dance filled narrative. It all works in cohesion with each other and this is rarely achieved with other dance/pop albums. In this genre each track typically sits as another song that could be in a playlist. Not this. The pop production is tight and clean. With some nice highlights of super fat bass and wide synth bass that really pop over the luscious euro synth pads. The mixed vocal deliveries between Goddard and Taylor are lovely. They have hit on something special here with an album that’s about 45 minutes, so it does not over stay it’s welcome, (regular readers of my musical thoughts will know that I appreciate concise and powerful music projects these days more and more). The heart and soul is still there, like in other Hot Chip albums, with emotional lyrics and beautiful melodies that layer to create some moving tracks in this work. An excellent album. Below I talk about some of my faves from the album.
Eleanor
This big single hits all the right notes. Super positive break up chords with the right amount of space. There is a super catchy vocal hook and quite the groove. The funky feel to this song helps to set the scene for other tracks in the album. The guitars are really nice and the dedication to production standards do not go unnoticed, such as those guitars being panned all the way to the left to highlight them in the pre-chorus.
Broken
What a surprisingly moving track for this genre. The vocal performance that also includes a vocoder helps to cement the sonic narrative and vulnerability of the lyrics. There is a special interplay between the guitars and bass in this that get the head moving and want to groove. This is going on my home playlists for sure.
Time
The opening sampling is a nice addition to this song. The two vocalists also creates more musical difference. There is nice subtlety in the less compressed dynamics and deliberately thinner textures, that makes for a nice break on the album. The fade in/out of other percussion elements like maracas and tambourine are great pieces of attention to detail.
Show Review
On the 16th of November I got to see Hot Chip at the Princess Theatre in Brisbane. The venue is like a smaller Tivoli, that has some decent acts going through it (the night before had Toro y Moi and Touch Sensitive). It can pack in a lot of people. It has a beautiful archway that frames the show for lights. It features brick walls, a high ceiling and beautiful natural (nice), but not loud amplification with good reflections.
Skeleton
Opening Act - Skeleton
The opening act Skeleton toured with them for the Australian leg of the tour. They are a fusion of psychedelic rock and dance music. The start of their half hour set had an album introduction style, with a slow build up. It had lots of delay and reverb on the main vocals. Eventually the main hyped chill drums come in, the mix of which were punchy and tight. The spacey guitar chords had lovely synth layers sprinkled in. Eventually the genre performance moved into Roland 909 drum styles. The sampling that was introduced moved the genre into something similar to Massive Attack or even Blur. The modern influences of their sounds include Cut Copy as well. Their lyrical themes were; free love and sex: perfection. If you want an image of them to think about, the lead singer wore green cargo pants and an ironic blue flame shirt my mate’s brother had when he was 8. The other band mates looked the same, except the synth player who wore more dressed up attire. They were a vibe. I just wish they had ramped up a little faster for a 30 minute set.
Hot Chip
Main Act - Hot Chip
This is the second time I have seen this band, and this show had a different vibe, due to the strength of their new album. The venue also was bigger than Kambri Theatre in Canberra. I first want to compliment Taylor on his many different dinosaur shirts he changed into and revealed throughout the show. Very wholesome and child like. Down from the new album was first. I loved seeing Clarke groove hard to this one, in the David Byrne way with his white suit. The synchronised moves from the whole band for Flutes was showing of them as performers. They are a well oiled machine for how they perform. The euro-synths got wild and were perpetually tweaked from Goddard, in his yellow stripped pants for this one. I especially liked the rim-shot activated lights during the “open your eyes” section of this tune. Speaking of the drums Doyle, was as tight as always in the beat. The mix for the drums were the loudest and was a compliment on how they wonderfully cut through the many bass lines and deep synths in the show. After a brief technical issue, the band decided to move onto Boy From School. Obviously one of their biggest tracks, it was opened with a throw away line about it would have just been released when they first toured to Australia (circa 2006 for The Warning). Lots of purple and white lighting blasted around the venue, with touches of orange. Epic.
For the next song, we returned to the Freakout / Release, with the hype single Eleanor. A lot of the song structures live had the same ABABCB with a similar wavey synth and guitar breakdown, but baby I was here for it. The title track was fat in the synths and bass. The analogue bass (with roady side musician) was so tight and thick. The Vocoders were outrageously good when played live. The scratchy guitars made this one of the stand outs of the night. Night and Day from In Our Heads followed. The lighting was red and blue police light style. The main sample was removed to bring attention to the live aspects. A nice touch. Hard To Be Funky had sexy blues and pinks. The boys really grooved to this one to bring the love to the crowd. Broken from the same album went off harder than you would expect at this point in the show.
A crowd choice followed with Hungry Child. The slow build up meant it really got to drop, hard!. The arpeggiators went wild during the first words of the chorus. We went back to days gone by for Ready For The Floor. The acid green trance lights with the vocoders made the dance floor go wild. There were acoustic elements that mixed really well with the digital. A very wholesome moment in our show when this song played. Straight To The Morning created some organic “whoops whoops” from the crowd. The luscious synth pads and peach lights intermingled lovely for Melody Of Love. The crowd’s shimmer fingers brought the love for sure. Miss The Bliss was a nice refresh from the new album. The organs and the vocoders from Goddard were quite different in this point of the gig. It was so good they played so many songs fro the album. It made the show really cemented that it was for this point in time. As you see from my review above, I really enjoyed the album so it was a great gig for me. With a fake out start to a track I didn’t recognise (“I like to dance yeah yeah yeah”), it turned very quickly into crowd favourite Over And Over. A white light filled strobe banger that should never end. This was so powerful and a much needed release for some of the veteran fans who were looking for more classics, and you can see the crowd love them.
The encore first went to Huarache Lights. The tequila sunrise colours pulsed around them with this extended version. At this point in the show I was thoroughly bathing it all in and was wondering where we would head for the final track. They definitely did not disappoint with I Feel Better. While this was the only one from my favourite Hot Chip album, it meant we could hear more from Freakout / Release. This version of the track was war, low-fi, and featured Cut Copy style Congo drums. Oh boy! What an epic conclusion. This band never disappoints with the variety of songs played across over nearly 20 years of albums. Cheers to Alistair for coming along and enjoying the night with me.
Setlist
Down
Flutes
Boy From School
Eleanor
Freakout / Release
Night and Day
Hard To Be Funky
Broken
Hungry Child
Ready For The Floor
Straight To The Morning
Melody Of Love
Miss The Bliss
Over And Over
Huarache Lights
I Feel Better
