Ever since they bounded onto the scene singing about toy monkeys and miniature cymbals, Hot Chip have stuck out as dance-pop’s odd guys. They wear funny outfits, their singer sounds sombre, and they distil influences like Roxy Music and Prince, Arthur Russell and Madonna with a nerdy zeal.
Ten years later, they’ve carved a distinctively eccentric sound, taking in four-to-the-floor house, silky R&B and golden-era disco – and the canny ability to write songs that go straight for the emotional jugular and make you want to get on one on a mid-week night.
So when we heard they had a new album, Why Make Sense?, of course we asked them to give the Guardian their own cultural twist.
Hot Chip: ‘Come along, have some punctual fun. That’s the Hot Chip pledge’
The band has been blending distinctive dance-pop hybrids for what feels like forever, and now they’re back with a new album. But what makes them tick? And how do they stay relevant?
James Joyce, Moodymann and Bloodline: Hot Chip’s culture matrix
The British pop band map out their culture picks on a big sheet of graph paper, taking in everything from the urbane to the unashamedly trashy
Alexis Taylor and David Byrne: a meeting of musical minds
The Hot Chip frontman and Talking Heads legend fire up Skype for a candid chat about collaboration, cybernetics and how best to cover Prince
Joe Goddard’s favourite synths
Hot Chip’s self-confessed synthesizer addict has 15 of the things clogging up his living room. He gets techie about the best classic models
Believe in miracles: Errol Brown by Pete Fowler - cartoon
Peter Fowler, the Hot Chip tour DJ and Welsh illustrator best known for his work with Super Furry Animals, imagines the late Errol Brown’s party in heaven
Activation unlocked: gaming with Peter Serafinowicz and Felix Martin
When they’re not making music or appearing in Star Wars, Hot Chip’s Felix Martin and actor Peter Serafinowicz are big on consoles
What Miliband, Clegg and Farage should do next, according to Hot Chip
Our former leaders’ futures are uncertain after the general election but Al Doyle seems as qualified as anyone to play careers adviser and find them suitable new jobs. He suggest some plum posts
And there’s more…
Owen Clarke picks out his best tracks of the week…
The boys have chosen Grayson Perry’s Dream House for this week’s Other Side review…
Moomins On The Riviera for the film column…
Indie polymath Jim O’Rourke for the music column…
No-wave dance producer Powell for Harangue The DJ…
And Tina Fey gets this week’s Infomania treatment.
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