Hot Chip - DJ Kicks (!K7)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
As well as a snap shot of what the band are listening to at the moment - this compilation is one intended to be an indication of what's been on the Hot Chip stereo the past few months, rather than a reflection of all their influences (there's no Prince on it, for one thing) - it's also a great way to discover tracks. Such geeks are they, there are a number of songs here you'll never have heard of. Such geniuses are they that a startling amount of them are pretty brilliant.
New British MC Grosvenor starts off the disc with the sumptuous 'Nite Moves', perhaps the best slice of UK RNB you'll have heard in a decade, as if to prove that last point. The day glo-hip hop of Positive K's 'I Got A Man' (more Will Smith than Kanye West) that follows it is also a delight, and in fact, the opening third of the record is the most perfect opening third of any party record I own - and I've got both LCD Soundsystem albums (ooh err, get me...)
Gramme's 'Like You' is great in a Bjork doing Aretha Franklin kinda way, everything flowing brilliantly towards the only reason that most of you'll be here in the first place - the inclusion of Hot Chip's only original contribution to their DJ Kicks instalment, 'My Piano'. It's simple, it's dumb, it's brilliant - a track to rival 'Colours', 'Over and Over' and 'Boy From School' certainly, with its straightforward ode to the brilliance of a pianner. It's hugely tuneful, wistful and stands up tall alongside the greats that follow it - Wax Stag's brilliant 8 bit rave of ''Short Road' mixing ecstatically in to the early synth euphoria that is New Order's 'Bizarre Love Triangle'.
And right at the bit where that New Order classic merges in to Young Leek's 'Jiggle It', it's fair to say DJ Kicks has peaked. You're probably meant to be enjoying the party so much by now, with a beer in your hand and a girl on your face, that the music serves only a background texture purpose, and at this it does indeed succeed. But you can't enjoy it on your own quite so much, won't tap your feet to it on a night bus or use it as the soundtrack to the construction of an omelette in your kitchen. Sure, there are flashes of brilliance (Etta James' 'In The Basement' for one), but when it stops being based on songs and becomes a dance mix album, almost entirely devoid of song craft or vocals, it's far more suited to an actual club rather than a front room full of your mates.
It's weird that they structure it this way, given that they so successfully achieved the song based mix tape they aimed for in the first half of 'DJ Kicks'. Yet it ends on Ray Charles' 'Mess Around', perhaps one of the most inarguably timeless party songs ever, so it finishes in the same kind of mood that it started in. As such, despite the lull to the last third of it, you leave Hot Chip's house party with a smile on your face.
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