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Oct 28, 2010 Hot Chip By Kenny S. McGuane

Much like their synth guru forefathers, Hot Chip write and arrange music that was meant to be remixed by people who were born to make us dance. Although they’ve released three consecutive critically acclaimed records, Hot Chip albums as beginning-to-end complete musical statements are—frankly—overrated. But nearly every one of their songs contains all of the necessary components for a badass remix, assuming the right technician oversees the project.

As an addendum to One Life Stand, released earlier this year, Hot Chip have unleashed the We Have Remixes EP, which features four alternative versions of songs yanked from OLS. The Todd Edwards space disco redo of “Hand Me Down Your Love” shines the brightest here and because it’s first in the set the other cuts struggle to impress. Hot City puts an LCD Soundsystem-esque smack down on “We Have Love” and Caribou’s remix of “Brothers” is as freaked out and psychedelic as we’ve come to expect from the Canadian mathematician. Both cuts are fun enough but at times require too much ear work. Osborne’s version of “Take It In” wraps up the collection with an almost yacht rockish mellowness and at just over seven minutes long it’s the most gratuitous of the batch. The U.K. release gives listeners a fifth track, the Wild Geese remix of “Hand Me Down Your Love,” which sounds like ‘90s-era Pet Shop Boys got their sophisti-pop hands on it. That’s never a bad thing.

The biggest disappointment here is the absence of a “One Life Stand” remix, which is arguably Hot Chip’s greatest song. Fingers crossed for a We Have Remixes Volume II. (www.hotchip.co.uk)

Author rating: 6/10