Hot Chip
are anti types of pop music, outsiders of the industry and ineligible as products beyond their music. Over the course of four albums, the five-piece unit from London has developed a style which mixes sweaty, thumping club beats and quirky melodies with the sort of heart-on-sleeve confessionals that’d befit a sensitive singer-songwriter. It's a strange combination, but a winning one.
Joe
Al
Joe: There’s an excellent R&B record. It’s called «You Don’t Know» by 702. That’s a great record when you come back home from a club, and just sit around and relax.
Al: A record on Kompakt, «Pop Ambient». With Brian Eno.
Joe: I was actually lying on the beach, not long ago. Last week. And the thing that sounded best to me was a collection of Sam Cooke songs. He has an old record label, his own label, and there’s a compilation of all the songs they released by different gospel groups.
Al: What about «The Beach Party» by Hot Chip?
Joe: Candle light dinner? Well, I cook dinner for my girlfriend quite often, but not always by candle light. And we put on things like the Atlantic Collection of R&B music or we like to listen to theme time radio hour, you know, with Bob Dylan and so on. It’s not the typical romantic music, but very personal and gentle.
Al: Well, I like to listen to Giuseppe Tartini when I prepare dinner. Or lets say: when I make food.
Al: Our favorite club is the «Sub Club» in Glasgow. And there is the sound we want to hear. I really like techno music when I go clubbing.
Joe: I like a lot of stuff in a club. Like old hiphop, techno, disco. Like Peaches. Yeah! We like Peaches.
Al: It takes a lot to make me run naked through a cornfield. I think something that makes me really insane. What about the «Circus Theme Song»?
Joe: Yeah, I would agree with Al. It takes a really incredible song to make me run naked through a cornfield too. But the «Circus Theme Song» would be a good one!
Al: Just let Joe make music by himself. Or, I heard from a guy who recorded himself hovering. That would be a great record too!
Joe: Yeah, that really disturbs my neighbors for years when I start making music. Someone threw an egg up my window!
Joe: So I guess we should talk about «if we drove». I think Roy Orbison is good driving music. Like the song «I Drove All Night».
Al: Ha. Nobody in the band can drive. Even if somebody from the band could drive, I wouldn’t let him. But a good driving song would be «Drive Your Car» by Grovesnor. There’s also a cover of «Transmission» from Joy Division we made. That’s what we call «easy-driving»-music.
Joe: There’s a new Hot Chip song called «Alley Cats» which is quite personal. It’s a song about my relationship. I listened to it a few days ago, when we were travelling, and it made me think of my girlfriend, and yeah it made a bit love sick.
Al: Or anything from the album «Oh Mercy».
Al: I like some sort of really heavy metal! No really, I hope that it won’t last just one song when I make love. Or let’s pretend I got my iPod on shuffle and after my chosen track ended, there will be something like «Baby’s Got Back» by Sir Mix-A-Lot, that goes «I like big boobs and I cannot lie!». That would be really nice, no? Better than the record ends and I have to get up like «sorry, I’ll be right back...».
Joe: Or something like Marilyn Manson, maybe? Actually I think Al Green would be nice music for this situation. Or just silence.
Joe: The last thing I listened to was the «Hearts And Bones» album by Paul Simon, which is a very big favorite of our singer Alexis. It’s a very beautiful album. Some parts are very rhythmic, kind of African sounding, and other parts are very very gentle and relaxed.
Al: I’m really afraid of flying, so I just have to listen to something that calms me down.
Joe: Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume II
Al: I agree with Joe. And spend the night with him in the spooky hotel together holding hands.
Joe: On my iPod I really like listening to hiphop, stuff like Quasimoto. And the album would be «The Unseen». I think this is excellent subway music.
Al: I’d like to listen to techno. Like Kollektiv Turmstrasse from Hamburg.
Joe: I usually wake up at 7.30 and start making music myself. But if I have to chose one, it would be some «morning music». I’d like to hear the soundtrack of «Apocalypse Now» in the morning.
Al: Well I’ve been listening to this song a lot, but not just in the morning.
