Andy's Aural Advent: 11th Dec. Hot Chip - "Huarache Lights"

 

It's Friday, it's the day of my Christmas lunch/night out, and I am ready for the floor.

A couple of years back, I saw Hot Chip arrive on stage at an almost painfully punctual 8.30pm and transform the Glasgow ABC into a bathe-in-the-light rave. And they pulled off the same trick again at the Barrowlands in October. This year's Why Make Sense, an attempt at a sparser, funkier sound, was a bit of a disappointment for me - especially after career-high In Our Heads - some of the tracks feeling underdeveloped, less feeling like less. When cherry-picked and played live, however, the new songs worked well alongside modern classics like "Over & Over", "Ready For the Floor", "One Life Stand", "Night & Day" and  "Flutes" (they've so many now that they can afford to leave out something as good as "And I Was A Boy From School"). A closing mash-up of covers was simply inspired - look up the word "euphoria" in the dictionary and it'll read: '(n) Hot Chip merging "Dancing In The Dark" with "All My Friends" on a Friday night at the Barras.'

Newie "Huarache Lights" - a very Hot Chip call for "something for your mind...body...soul" in a tech-obsessed world where they "replace us with the things that do the job better" - opened the set: an electronic throbber with a human heart. "Machines are great, but...best when they come to life."