Hot Chip

We Have Remixes EP

Following the strange logic that dictates that any dance-oriented artist should have a remix collection foisted upon an unsuspecting public mere months after the release of their full-length album comes this five-song EP. It features reconfigured versions of tracks from Hot Chip's fourth album, One Life Stand, released this past February. While this is a disc meant only for the DJ contingent that has long worshipped this electro-pop outfit (and rightly so) as well as completist fans, the delight comes in hearing a rather unusual selection of material. The chosen remixers avoid the two fine singles from the album and instead dig for deep cuts, not to mention the fact that the artists working the dials have a blast pulling apart the source material.

As is the case with most remixes, it is the folks who take the most liberties with the songs that come up with the best moments here. Daniel Snaith—better known as Caribou—turns the shimmering "Brothers" into a slow-building electro-fritz dreamscape by concentrating on one repeated synth line and disco beat over which he layers noise after noise. British wunderkind Hot City chops up "We Have Love" into jagged pieces that he uses to cut new shapes into the edifice of two-step. The rest stick closely to the template that Hot Chip have provided to them, but add their signature squiggles and playful touches. It helps ease these mixes into a DJ set, but will likely leave fans scrambling back to the original articles for a bit of grounding.

Astralwerks

“We Have Love (Hot City Remix)”