Late Night Tales – Hot Chip: CD

UK electronic artpop outfit Hot Chip provide the perfect antidote to these strange and uncertain times with the latest release in the hugely popular LateNightTales artist-curated series. Along with featuring new music from the band, they have selected music from some of the most engaging artists of the 21st century, taking in pulsating electronic rhythms, hypnotic grooves and leftfield ambience. Spearheaded by founders Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard, Hot Chip are one of the UK’s most interesting and much-loved acts. Since releasing their debut album ‘Coming On Strong’ in 2004, they have received a Grammy Award nomination (‘Ready for the Floor’) and Mercury Prize nomination (‘The Warning’) and their seventh studio album, last year’s ‘A Bath Full of Ecstasy,’ received rave reviews across the globe from both critics and fans. A unique, personal collection that is both euphoric and melancholic. “I think we all had slightly different understandings of what a Late Night Tales compilation might consist of; varying interpretations of the brief. For some the mix might be what you’d want to listen to as your late night continues, after a night out. For others maybe it suggested a selection of music for listening to as you drift off to sleep; then again it could just be music evocative of night time, or concerned with its traditionally ‘darker’ moods,” says Taylor. Elsewhere, other highlights include an appearance from synth-pop auteur Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith with ‘Who I Am & Why I Am Where’ and new material from Alexis’ ‘other’ band, the improv-mavens About Group, along with the adventurous ‘Workaround Two’ from electronic experimentalist Beatrice Dillon and German composer, Nils Frahm’s beautifully evocative ‘Ode’. But it is left to Alexis’ father to have the final word, with an elegant excerpt from the daring ‘Finnegans Wake’ by James Joyce.