Hot Chip - The Warning

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (173 of them)

yeh: i saw them live and they were much harder-edged. i still wasn't a huge fan of some of the songs - although they did one that was truly magnificent and jaw-dropping (which isn't on this album).

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 16 June 2006 10:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Hot Chip are certainly no New Order!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 16 June 2006 10:09 (seventeen years ago) link

yes, but these days neither are new order.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 17 June 2006 11:14 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm not sure I'd want them to sound like New Order -- whether or not I think it works, what it sounds to me like they're trying to do is blend the most unholy combination of genres: i.e. twee, electronica / synthpop and crunk (or similar). The dissonance in the production doesn't seem so inexplicable if you're coming to it after the racket which a lot of 06 hip-hop seems to be chasing. The tension between the slightly splattery rhythmic textures and the forcefully restrained and mannered vocals and production seems to me deliberate, along the lines of their occasional nods to 'urban' music (which often seems to hover between homage, affectionate parody and something slightly unpleasant) e.g. I ride, you ride, we ride, in my ride on the first album.

― alext (alext), Saturday, 17 June 2006 13:17 (seventeen years ago) link

anyhow heard the "boy from school" single? apparently there are 2 bsides that are realllly good

― boonah (boonah), Saturday, 17 June 2006 17:32 (seventeen years ago) link

the erol alkan remix of boy from school is gorgeous!

― cozen (Cozen), Saturday, 17 June 2006 19:58 (seventeen years ago) link

The dissonance in the production doesn't seem so inexplicable if you're coming to it after the racket which a lot of 06 hip-hop seems to be chasing. The tension between the slightly splattery rhythmic textures and the forcefully restrained and mannered vocals and production seems to me deliberate

oh, i'm quite sure it is deliberate: and yes, i think you're probably right about what they're doing/aiming to do and the attitude with which they're going about it. watching them live, everything they did seemed quite studied, even their tooling about between synths (although they fucked up their back-projections something rotten) ... i guess what i mean is that they've put a lot of focus into sounding unfocused.

sadly, i think that's a mistake because all too often you end up with music that's entirely for the head and bypasses the heart completely. like i say: i get fleeting moments of connection from "the warning", but that's it.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Sunday, 18 June 2006 19:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Thats weird I find it hits both "pop" lizard brain and "emotional" centres quite heavily- and actually they sound pretty focused most of the time (on record at least)-- it has a great wide screen stereo field as well, which makes for engaging headphone listening unlike a lot of electronic records (not minimal techno mind) these days which sound shit under closer inspection, as if they have been too lazy to do proper stereo placement... The only track that sounds a mess on record is "over and over" which sounds overly crammed with stuff.

― gekoppel (Gekoppel), Sunday, 18 June 2006 20:25 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm finding it difficult to raise the energy to explore the "splattery textures" because the vocalist is so very dull.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Sunday, 18 June 2006 22:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Again, a record which I found sounded better in the outdoors and in the sunshine. The vocals I'm still not sure about (Steve Mason out of the Beta Band is kind of unassailable when it comes to this type of avant-indie deadpan singing). Don't know about Robert Wyatt singing with Chicory Tip (as Morley suggested in his OMM review), but Difford and Tilbrook kept coming to my mind. "Over And Over" sounds like something Squeeze might have done if they'd taken the other fork in the road after "Take Me I'm Yours," and I think is the album's best track. "Look After Me" and "So Glad To See You" are rather touching, but I kept wishing Robert Wyatt were singing them.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 19 June 2006 06:55 (seventeen years ago) link

Mason always managed a certain macho-ness in his geek-beach boys vocals, or is that just the Scottish machismo coming thru? Hot Chip seem less forceful and slightly less morose, more sad than Mason's evidently depression-riddled style... I'm just pleased to hear those skipping garage rhythms finding a reasonable home...

― gekoppel (Gekoppel), Monday, 19 June 2006 16:10 (seventeen years ago) link

i always took the beat band to be completely free of machismo.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 19 June 2006 17:58 (seventeen years ago) link

ahuh, yeah but compared to hot chip you can suddenly notice some.

― gekoppel (Gekoppel), Monday, 19 June 2006 18:07 (seventeen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

i can't go to bed yet because i have to listen to 'Just Like We (Breakdown)' ONE more time...

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 5 July 2006 22:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Well all I've heard is the song that appears on the Uncut CD (don't remember the title) and it sounded pretty good so I'm gonna try some more of their stuff.

― Lenny Koggins (Bimble...), Wednesday, 5 July 2006 22:53 (seventeen years ago) link

six months pass...

Anyone else heard the new DFA 7" by Booji Boy High (which is, of course, Hot Chip - or some members of)? I am loving it.
Some really filthy synth sounds, and still catchy...

http://www.piccadillyrecords.com/index.php?url=http://www.piccadillyrecords.com/ver2/search1.php&new=1&search=Booji+Boy+High

(It's on iTunes UK too)

― Tiki Theater Xymposium (Bent Over at the Arclight), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 17:24 (seventeen years ago) link

I've been puzzled by a few news bits that don't seem to get the Devo reference!

― mh. (mike h.), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 17:29 (seventeen years ago) link

I picked up the Warning in the Tower bankruptcy extravaganza and I'm liking it the more and more I put it on. "Careful" is probably my favorite - it reminds me a lot of Disco Inferno, the raccous backing-track plus beautiful melody on top thing. Lower the voices in the mix and it sounds like something that could have been on Technicolour.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 25 January 2007 14:12 (seventeen years ago) link

four months pass...

Love love love this album still. What else do y'all think i should listen to if i likes this. And for whatever, the album never seems to end. which is a good thing right now.

― Jubalique die Zitronen, Friday, 1 June 2007 16:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Played it two weeks ago after a friend started to drunkenly mumble "(Just Like We) Break Down." It's held up fairly well, but I never thought it was the bees' knees either.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 1 June 2007 16:41 (seventeen years ago) link

The Colours song is so good.

So good.

The rest is not quite that good, but still. I like the notion mentioned above that it's somewhat awkward and still crafted, but not in a self-conscious manner, at least not for me.

― Jubalique die Zitronen, Friday, 1 June 2007 17:32 (seventeen years ago) link

even people like me, who don't really think about them seem tofeel that'over and over' is undeniably great... make of that what you will!

― fandango, Friday, 1 June 2007 20:06 (seventeen years ago) link

three months pass...

I just heard 'Over and Over' for the first time on speakers with proper bass, rather than my own tinny ones. I get it now.

― Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 25 September 2007 16:53 (sixteen years ago) link

seven months pass...

'and i was a boy from school' is fantastic. most everything else i sort of half-liked then forgot about

― Charlie Howard, Monday, 28 April 2008 13:37 (sixteen years ago) link

actually 'look after me' is really nice. guess i prefer this band's more subdued numbers.

― Charlie Howard, Monday, 28 April 2008 15:22 (sixteen years ago) link

I think you'd like their version of Matthew Dear's Don & Sherri, which you can still hear here.

― Alba, Monday, 28 April 2008 17:19 (sixteen years ago) link

more like "WARNING: SHITTY FUCKIN RECORD"

― banriquit, Monday, 28 April 2008 18:14 (sixteen years ago) link

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.