On brown vinyl.
Freakout/Release is another dizzying high in a multi-decade career that’s seen Hot Chip continuing to innovate and develop a rich, resonant songcraft. And while they continue to operate at peak form, the album also feels like a new chapter for the group—a collection of flesh-and-blood songs that finds the band reaching into the darkness to emerge as a true creative unit, their gazes fixed positively on the future ahead. The album features Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon, British DJ & musician Lou Hayter & production work from Soulwax.
Freakout/Release was written and recorded in the band’s newly minted Relax & Enjoy studio in East London, a creative space that Al Doyle put together before and during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Coalescing in the Relax & Enjoy studio was essential in establishing the album’s lively, full-band sound and marks the first time Hot Chip began work on a new record all together as well as reuniting them in the same room for the first time following their touring behind 2019’s A Bath Full Of Ecstasy.
Fittingly, harnessing Hot Chip’s irreplicable live energy in a studio space was in the front of the band’s mind, as they found themselves particularly inspired by their cover of Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” that’s become a setlist staple. “The idea of being out of control is always there in dance music, in a positive sense,” Doyle explains while discussing the cover’s influence on the new album.
“By the time we were able to be back together, we were turning on a tap and having a lot of ideas being poured out quite quickly” adds Alexis Taylor. Joe Goddard describes the creative plan of attack as creating “In a natural way, without too much discussion or a grand plan.” This improvisatory vibe was supported by the new studio space, Doyle adds: “Everything’s on all the time, and it’s very easy to capture what we’re doing.”
01. Down
02. Eleanor
03. Freakout/Release
04. Broken
05. Not Alone
06. Hard To Be Funky feat. Lou Hayter
07. Time
08. Miss The Bliss
09. The Evil That Men Do feat. Cadence Weapon
10. Guilty
11. Out Of My Depth
Freakout/Release is another dizzying high in a multi-decade career that’s seen Hot Chip continuing to innovate and develop a rich, resonant songcraft. And while they continue to operate at peak form, the album also feels like a new chapter for the group—a collection of flesh-and-blood songs that finds the band reaching into the darkness to emerge as a true creative unit, their gazes fixed positively on the future ahead. The album features Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon, British DJ & musician Lou Hayter & production work from Soulwax.
Freakout/Release was written and recorded in the band’s newly minted Relax & Enjoy studio in East London, a creative space that Al Doyle put together before and during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Coalescing in the Relax & Enjoy studio was essential in establishing the album’s lively, full-band sound and marks the first time Hot Chip began work on a new record all together as well as reuniting them in the same room for the first time following their touring behind 2019’s A Bath Full Of Ecstasy.
Fittingly, harnessing Hot Chip’s irreplicable live energy in a studio space was in the front of the band’s mind, as they found themselves particularly inspired by their cover of Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” that’s become a setlist staple. “The idea of being out of control is always there in dance music, in a positive sense,” Doyle explains while discussing the cover’s influence on the new album.
“By the time we were able to be back together, we were turning on a tap and having a lot of ideas being poured out quite quickly” adds Alexis Taylor. Joe Goddard describes the creative plan of attack as creating “In a natural way, without too much discussion or a grand plan.” This improvisatory vibe was supported by the new studio space, Doyle adds: “Everything’s on all the time, and it’s very easy to capture what we’re doing.”
01. Down
02. Eleanor
03. Freakout/Release
04. Broken
05. Not Alone
06. Hard To Be Funky feat. Lou Hayter
07. Time
08. Miss The Bliss
09. The Evil That Men Do feat. Cadence Weapon
10. Guilty
11. Out Of My Depth