Monday, October 5, 2009

short circuits

on another and less ephemeral note, my fingers, eyes and ears bumped into the bugged out/bugged in remixes by hot chip, released earlier this year. it´s about as random as it gets, ranging from techno, downtempo, experimental, dubstep, calypso, 80s classics, expected r&b, rap, & other additions.
what glues this pastiche all together is hot chip´s almost unmistakable electro sound and alexis taylor´s beautiful honey producing mouth... evidently, not a whole lot of glue.

as 42 tracks poured into my itunes, i must admit i got pretty excited. a part from my brief and vague chat a few months ago with al doyle, telling me he likes INXS and his wife works at commes des garçons, that was pretty much it for 09... i needed more, made in the dark seemed so far away, and haven´t been able to listen to ABOUT...
so i wondered off into hot chip´s psyche. (here is where i would like to point out that i consider myself the over-analytical type of fan that doesn´t get enough with a plain "hot chip is a british electropop band...". but i guess most of you already deduced that.)

i felt like bugged out totally redounds on the instrumental, then gradually and painfully turns ibizaesque (a mistake i tend to do myself on my mixtapes, the instrumental not the ibizaesque part)...
disc 1. finally vindicates itself on its "intermission" (track 13-14) with hot chip´s take it in, then continues on flatlining up until ican´s chiclet´s theme, ending on max cooper´s i.
formula = putting three of their favorites at the beginning, one in the middle and two at the end = everything else has a hard time keeping up.
it begins and ends well, burning in the middle (i´m not referring to the good type of heat, but the bad one, the one that actually makes things turn into ash).
a part from that, no noteworthy punch.
bugged out could be characterized as a DFA/LCD soundsystem dj set, infinite sound alliteration, which made me yawn and if i hadn´t had a bit of peace of mind, i would not have been able to go through with it
what i could say is that hot chip (in this series) definitely has the ability to weave a very long thread and make it seem like it is made out of the same material, you hear the first 24 tracks and each song flows and fits like a puzzle into the next. chronologically shameless. its shame resides in the lack of spark that could make my mind flare (now i´m referring to the good type of heat).

i found the alluring, the aesthetic and admirable on bugged in, a far less club inspired compilation, which to me was the interesting part, it´s all over the place, chaotic and entertaining. totally nerdy, dorky and beyond, a retake on the kinks apeman, was the dork epitome for me.
it still flows, but a creative flow, not the boring and repetitive. seems like they´re making fun of everything. i can picture them doing the whole "i feel so cool listening and dancing cheesely to luther vandross and terrence trent d´arby".

favorites range from the exquisite winter home disco by the pictish trail, chiclet´s theme by ican, nah und fern by gas, which is perfectly layered into the first three tracks of bugged out, (this is the hook, at least this was mine), osborne´s 16th stage, hall & oats classic i can´t go for that, which is a bit predictable, but efficient, cheeky lyrics presented in shake a puddin´by dub narcotic sound system make me love this group, london town by man like me saying "get out your matching moschino´s and your gucci loafers oh/yo...", jaja, biz markie´s just a friend "have you ever met a girl that you tried to date, but a year to make love she wanted you to wait" is priceless. and an inevitable flashback to my childhood growing up in texas with zapp & roger´s i wanna be your man.

this piece of faded wisdom pretty much sums up the remixes.
"i´ll wine you, dine you, and then leave you, all in one motion"
technically 42 motions, and yes, i still want more hot chip.

2 comments:

digital bees said...

1. don't underrate ibiza. the balearic influence is a big part of what you like about this mix.

2. "i asked her name, she said 'blah blah blah.'"

3. that julian casablancas song is awesome.

Michell Halley said...

3. liar.