 Hot Chip present their eighth album, ‘Freakout/Release’, via Domino.  ‘Freakout/Release’ is another dizzying high in a multi-decade career that’s seen Hot Chip continuing to innovate and develop a rich, resonant songcraft. And while they continue to operate at peak form, the album also feels like a new chapter for the group - a collection of flesh-and-blood songs that finds the band reaching into the darkness to emerge as a true creative unit, their gazes fixed positively on the future ahead.  The five piece - comprised of Owen Clarke, Al Doyle, Joe Goddard, Felix Martin and Alexis Taylor - wrote and recorded in the band’s newly minted Relax & Enjoy studio in East London, a creative space that Al Doyle put together before and during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fittingly, harnessing Hot Chip’s irreplicable live energy in a studio space was in the front of the band’s mind, as they found themselves particularly inspired by their cover of Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’ that’s become a setlist staple.

Can't get enough of the new Hot Chip release, which sounds like a summary of all their best traits carefully packaged for our delectation. From the heavy vocoder-treated title track to the joyous pop of ‘Eleanor’, if you're listening you'll be dancing. But it's not all about moving your feet, you'll also be able to pick out the varied emotions of a band tied to creativity in a troubled world. And in troubled times you can always call on your friends, in this case, rapper Cadence Weapon as well as Lou Hayter who shares some of her House vocal style on the proceedings. FFO: Soulwax, LCD Soundsystem, Metronomy, The Rapture.

By Martha