Hot Chip

DJ Kicks

(!K7)

Record Review by Alexis Roberts

You probably already know Hot Chip for their original electronica madness. Songs like “Boy From School” and “Over and Over” get your ass shaking while other hits include songs like “Playboy,” which reminds us that, yes, it is pretty dope to drive around blazin’ out Yo La Tengo. DJ Kicks is a remix album, but not a remix album of Hot Chip songs; it is a mash-up album of a bunch of songs that Hot Chip felt would create the ultimate dance party. DJ Kicks flows smoothly through the arbitrary mix of artists and I’d say it works out pretty well.

The guys of Hot Chip do an interesting thing by placing songs by the greats, like Ray Charles’ “Mess Around” and “In the Basement Pt. 1” by Etta James and Sugar Pie DeSanto alongside bands from the 1980s that nobody really cares much about. Joe Jackson’s masterpiece “Steppin’ Out” actually sounds good to the point that you might feel like you actually like that song.  New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle” (Shep Pettibone Extended Remix) is not to be missed either, but that song was pretty cool to begin with.

You might be thinking that this sounds all too bizarre for you because of the eclectic nature of the songs but really that is what makes it work. Hot Chip could have remixed an entire CD’s worth of their own songs, but what is the point in that? (They do include one of their own songs, “My Piano”).  The reason that I trust Hot Chip for a mix is because all of the remixes that they have done of their own songs are quite pleasant. If we were to look at the big picture, though, DJ Kicks is kind of a reflection of the personality of Hot Chip’s music. Even though you find their CDs in the Techno section of Amoeba, it’s a million different things all at once: goody, nerdy, dancey, fun, etc… but it always works and it always keeps us wanting more.