Felix Martin
Al Doyle
artists like Prince would use this technique, presenting themselves in displaced androgynous forms in much the same way that post-garage artists like James Blake have done more recently. “It gives it an odd quality that doesn’t feel very natural. We’re often interested in playing around with ideas of what is natural and what is a bit more kind of awkward-sounding.” “I like that era and that kind of format for lots of reasons,” adds Joe when we start talking about the advent of the 12” in the ‘80s and how this helped inspire the arrangement of ‘Ends Of The Earth’ and the album in general, reminding them of a time when hi-tech studios manned by celebrated producers such as Trevor Horn or Martin Rushent were the norm before cheap digital technology democratised music making and heralded the beginning of house music. “The sound quality of a 12” playing at 45 with one track on one side from that period is pretty beautiful... I often find myself if I’m record shopping listening to extended versions of those singles. I find that they take their time and develop their ideas with different rhythmical elements.” “It’s also a period I guess when those extended versions are almost an afterthought, not necessarily the work of the bands themselves,” adds Alexis, coming in from another angle. “Sometime it’s an unmentioned, unknown producer, or later on maybe Shep Pettibone, actually doing a remix that becomes the iconic version of the track, like New Order’s ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’. “It’s almost the opposite of what is happening now, which is a lot about who is going to do the remix. That obviously helps sell records. There was a period where it seemed like people really wanted a Hot Chip remix, even if maybe that band didn’t really suit being remixed by us.”
DANCING ABOUT
ARCHITECTURE This connecting of anonymity and creativity is one of many hints that Joe and Alexis are somewhat reluctant stars, part of a headline act touring the world, and highly appreciative of it — “I don’t want to be blasé about the fact that that happens,” says Alexis plainly at one point — but happiest in the studio (“I quite want to make some new music,” Alexis states on their future plans, “this record will come out in a while, but it will be nice to be working on the next thing”), bouncing ideas off one another and forging new friendships, rather than schmoozing at the after-show party, or indeed talking about what they’ve made. At one point, outlining the press trips that the band have already made to New York, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and Cologne, Alexis says, “I still don’t know
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Owen Clarke
what to say about it”. He’s not being difficult, just seems genuinely perplexed at how to describe the creative process or, to paraphrase Elvis Costello, still wondering which interpretive dance best conveys the cathedral they’re dusting themselves down from building. “We just try to make some good songs and put them all next to each other.” Fortunately, in other areas, success has allowed them to fade into the background, such as the video for ‘Night And Day’ shot by off-key ‘male comedienne’ Peter Serafinowicz. Having previous appeared as the traditional band playing instruments for hits such as ‘Ready For the Floor’ and ‘Over And Over’, ‘If I Feel Better’, Peter’s directorial debut, instead featured a bizarrely engaging narrative in which a boyband emerged singing the song, only to be laser-beamed by a bald Christ-like figure, who then joins them in a synchronised dance before everyone — including Hot Chip, who make a brief appearance amongst the crowd of screaming girl fans — are destroyed by a disembodied godhead, played by Antonio ‘Popeye’ Francis of Britain’s Got Talent fame (goggle him).
If that sounds weird, then Peter’s second video for’Night and Day’ stars Terrence Stamp, Reggie Watts, Lara Stone and two flying saucers.
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BADMAN ON TWITTER Sonically, ‘In Our Heads’ is Hot Chip’s most expansive- sounding album thanks to the band decamping to the studio of Mark Ralph of Filthy Dukes fame, a veritable musician’s playground filled with a list of analogue goodies that Alexis reels off without hesitation, clearly on more comfortable ground. “We used the Arp 2600 synthesiser quite a lot, we used the DX7, MPC, Simmons drums, Juno 60 and we might have used a really early Korg as well. Quite a lot of things that it makes sense for us to be using. They probably make a big block of the sounds that you’re hearing.” “In a technical sense, he’s a very experienced engineer with an amazing desk and amazing outboard gear,” adds Joe on the skills that Mark, who the pair had previously worked with separately, brought to the recording process when they turned up with a handful of demos. “I think it’s the best sound we’ve ever had. The actual signal path, you’re recording the synthesiser but it’s going through an amazing pre-amp and compressor and through a beautiful desk into Pro-Tools. “I mean, if you want to get really technical, when he’s recording into Pro-Tools, he’s doing it at a higher quality than we’ve ever recorded at before, so it sounds its best,” Joe continues, hitting his stride. There’s an endearing alpha-nerdiness to Hot Chip, top
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