Hot Chip "The Warning" (Astralwerks)
By Jared Brownell
Thursday. Jul 13, 12:02 AM
S.e.x.i.n.g C.a.s.i.o.

Referencing and reinterpreting electronic riffs that seem to have existed since the advent of the Casio keyboard, Hot Chip have an incredible depth of harmonics and a heavily layered sound. First listen through will leave you wondering who the lead singer is, or if there even is a lead singer, due to the large role that each band member’s vocals play. Everyone sings, and more often than not they’re all singing at once, producing an incredibly harmonic wall of voices.

Varying vocal sounds complement the immense amount of styles encompassed by the band’s instruments. In “And I Was a Boy From School,” tempos and beats from a clubby atmosphere give way to call & responses that starkly contrast each other: “I got, I got lost” (mid-low) vs. “you said this was the way back” (high), then all blended together on the chorus with a bass vocal thrown in for good measure.

Some approaches may not make the most sense next to each other, but Hot Chip get a lot of mileage out of these sharp contrasts laid over their infectious (and almost constantly changing) beats. Like the most recent Gorillaz endeavor or the end of Abbey Road, songs on The Warning not only flow seamlessly from beginning to end, but could easily be divided up even further into two minute segments.

One of the standout two-in-one songs is “Over and Over.” A wood block plods along with the guitar (which occasional breaks free wails as gritty as sandpaper) while keyboards dance around in the background. Halfway through, all of this is halted, juxtaposed, and remixed with a voice almost as mechanical as Stephen Hawking’s, spelling out a series of words more jumbled and nonsensical than spam message, yet still incredibly poetic.

The Warning is composed so well, that the line at the end of the album “I’m in no fit state / shape, to make the record of my life” comes off as extremely modest. From synth pop straight from the ‘80s to beats & blips reminiscent of Aphex Twin, there is a lot of aural “meat” for you to chew on here. It might be slow at first, but it’s the kind of album where you are constantly finding your “new favorite song” every listen.
www.hotchip.co.uk
www.astralwerks.com

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Jared Brownell

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