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.