Hot Chip: We Have Remixes EP (2010)

(astralwerks)

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Hot Chip traditionally does a release like this after an album, collecting a few tracks treated by a few remixers specially selected by the band. This is the first such release I've actually checked out from them, in large part because I think their new album is their best to date and is special enough to me that I was keen on the idea of hearing a different angle on some of the songs.

I want to preface this by saying that I think One Life Stand is an effort most anyone could enjoy and love; as I've already said here, it's a beautiful, affecting album that's also full of warm disco built to make a room full of people come together and raise their hands and bounce around or whatever. It's the definition of a multi-purpose record. By design, though, We Have Remixes is aimed squarely at the dance floor. It doesn't tread any new ground and only one of the four tracks is really spectacular, but anyone who loves Stand as much as I do will appreciate it, as will anyone who could go for some solid, intelligent club tracks.

The standout of the disc is the closing Osborne remix of "Take It In," also the album's final track. The original is the sort of happy hangover haze of the LP, a declaration of groggy Sunday-morning love. This mix recasts it as a sprawled-out banger with the lovely harmonies sounding more vast and enveloping, the energy amped up and the deliberate laziness withered away until the song barrels forward while maintaining its crucial sweetness. Already a delightful album track, it thus becomes dance music to contend with "I Feel Better" or "Hand Me Down Your Love." It feels large and roomy enough to live in, and that communal feeling is contagious.

As dissected here, "Brothers" offers both the most radical revision of all the selections and is provided by the most famous remixer, the band Caribou. They do a wonderful job recasting this surprisingly touching ballad as an eerie, mysterious, robotic nightlife jam -- aggressive, relentless, druggy, dark, it's manipulative and unsubtle but makes the most distinct and memorable impression of all the EP tracks as compared to its album counterpart.

Prior to those, we get a brighter, almost throwback house variation on "Hand Me Down Your Love" -- the most primal and possibly the best track on the LP -- with the Todd Edwards Micro Chip remix. Just when the thumping beat is starting to wear thin, the track intriguingly loses shape and disintegrates into vocal matter that wobbles and hovers around the listener. The crowd-pleasing Hot City remix of "We Have Love" does more or less precisely what you'd expect someone to do with that song -- make the beat a little harder, expand it a bit, and mostly reemphasize the frantic pounding intensity of the original.

I'm the sort of person who still, to this day, must have every Depeche Mode remix that gets released. I often enjoy their 12" singles more than what makes their conventional releases. But there are very few bands to whom I'm willing to offer that kind of investment. Hot Chip may yet prove to be one, but for now, I mostly enjoy these four mixes as a complement to and recontextualization of an album I adore. One Life Stand is the main course and this is a most agreeable dessert.

[SEE ALSO:]
One Life Stand (2010)