With their witty, affecting songwriting and the immediately recognizable vocals of
Alexis Taylor and
Joe Goddard,
Hot Chip combine indie and dance in innovative ways. On early albums such as 2006's Mercury Prize-nominated
The Warning, the band evoked the cleverness of
Talking Heads and the poignancy of the
Pet Shop Boys. As time went on,
Hot Chip's music broadened and deepened, encompassing the tender musings on commitment of 2010's One Life Stand as well as the anything-goes genre mashups of 2015's
Why Make Sense? With only a few hit singles to their name (chief among them the Grammy-nominated "Ready for the Floor" from 2008's
Made in the Dark),
Hot Chip nevertheless earned a following that allowed them to headline festivals, as reflected by the rave-tinged anthems of 2019's
A Bath Full of Ecstasy.
Vocalists/multi-instrumentalists
Joe Goddard and
Alexis Taylor met in 1991, when they both attended Putney's Elliott School. During their time there, they bonded over their love of
the Beastie Boys as well as American indie singer/songwriters such as
Will Oldham and Bill Callahan. They also began working on their own music, and found a mentor in their schoolmate,
Four Tet's
Kieran Hebden.
Taylor and
Goddard continued their collaboration even when they went to different universities in 1999 (
Taylor studied English at Cambridge, while
Goddard pursued a history degree at Oxford), and added new influences like U.K. garage, pop, and R&B to their tracks.
In 2000,
Goddard and
Taylor officially became
Hot Chip. That March, they released the Mexico EP, a hypnotic wash of nearly subliminal, pulse-like techno beats, acoustic guitars, and plinky pianos on Victory Garden Records. After graduating from university, they returned in October 2002 with the Sanfrandisco E-Pee, which dabbled in more playful sounds such as beatboxing. The EP caught the attention of Moshi Moshi Records, which released
Hot Chip's first full-length,
Coming on Strong, in 2004. The duo became a full-fledged band with the addition of
Owen Clarke,
Al Doyle, and
Felix Martin.
Prior to making their second album,
Hot Chip signed to
EMI Records in the U.K. and DFA Records in the U.S. (the latter issued
The Warning in the U.S. in late 2005 as a co-release with Astralwerks). Arriving in May 2006,
The Warning fleshed out the band's sound. In addition to reaching number 34 on the U.K. Albums Chart and number 13 on Billboard's Top Electronic Albums chart, it earned critical acclaim that included a Mercury Prize nomination and was eventually certified gold in the U.K. In addition, the singles "Over and Over" and "Boy from School" became Top 40 hits in the band's homeland.
Hot Chip followed the album with a DJ-Kicks mix album in 2007. The band returned with February 2008's
Made in the Dark, which featured some of their most focused grooves and poppiest melodies to date. The album peaked at number four on the U.K. Albums Chart, and like its predecessor, was certified gold. The single The single "Ready for the Floor" peaked at number six on the U.K. Singles Chart and earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Recording. At the end of the year,
Hot Chip issued Hot Chip with Robert Wyatt and Geese, which featured the band working with the singer/songwriter and the string quartet on a set of reimagined and remixed songs from
Made in the Dark.
After the
Made in the Dark tour ended,
Hot Chip began work on their fourth album in early 2009. The band drafted
This Heat drummer
Charles Hayward,
the Invisible's
Leo Taylor and Trinidadian steel pan player
Fimber Bravo to add different percussion styles to One Life Stand, which arrived in February 2010. Along with earning critical acclaim, the album climbed to number 11 on the U.K. Albums Chart and topped the U.K. Dance Albums Chart. In the U.S., it reached number five on the Top Dance/Electronic Albums Chart.
The members of
Hot Chip then took some time off to pursue other projects. These included
About Group, a collaboration featuring
Taylor,
Hayward and
Spring Heel Jack’s
John Coxon;
the 2 Bears,
Goddard's project with producer
Raf Rundell; and
Doyle and
Martin's
New Build. In 2012,
Hot Chip moved to Domino Records, which released that June's uptempo, freewheeling fifth album In Our Heads, which peaked at number 14 on the U.K. Albums Chart. The Dark and Stormy EP followed a year later.
Hot Chip returned in May 2015 with
Why Make Sense?, a reunion with In Our Heads collaborator
Mark Ralph that explored sounds ranging from disco to '90s R&B to post-punk. The album was a top 20 hit in the U.K., and reached number three on Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Albums Chart. For their next album, the band drew on experiences ranging from parenthood to working with
Katy Perry on her 2017 album
Witness. For the first time,
Hot Chip worked with outside producers, enlisting
Philippe Zdar and
Rodaidh McDonald to help hone their songs. The results were
A Bath Full of Ecstasy, which Domino released in June 2019. The album reached number 11 on the U.K. Albums Chart and number 12 on the Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums Chart. The following October,
Hot Chip issued their
Late Night Tales mix, a drifting set featuring four previously unreleased tracks that included their cover of
the Velvet Underground's "Candy Says." ~ Heather Phares & Karen E. Graves