{"id":720,"date":"2019-06-17T14:02:43","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T13:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fr-nt.nl\/?p=720"},"modified":"2022-06-07T22:51:37","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T21:51:37","slug":"hot-chip-geeft-de-macht-uit-handen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fr-nt.nl\/en\/2019\/06\/17\/hot-chip-geeft-de-macht-uit-handen\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot Chip surrenders power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hot Chip has always been a prolific band, but after Why Make Sense<\/em> (2015) it was time for a fairly extended break. Co-frontmen Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard each released solo albums\u2014Taylor even two\u2014while guitarist Al Doyle became a full member of LCD Soundsystem, the band he toured with only before its breakup and subsequent comeback. Four years later, the mothership is back with A Bath Full Of Ecstasy.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by:<\/strong> Reinier van der Zouw
Photos: <\/strong>Bibian Bingen

After this interview, in the week before the release of A Bath Full Of Ecstasy, Philippe Zdar passed away, at much too young age. The French producer and half of Cassius left his mark on Hot Chip's new record. Below, Joe Goddard and Alexis Taylor praise the collaboration. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Bath Full Of Ecstasy <\/em>is not only the record in the Hot Chip oeuvre that has been delayed the longest, it is also the first record in which the band completely surrendered to outside producers. The choice ultimately fell on Philippe Zdar, a French producer who is best known for his work with Cassius and Phoenix, and Rodaidh McDonald, the regular producer of The XX, among others. Goddard explains how that happened: \u201cWe consciously wanted to open ourselves up to a full collaboration with the producers. So there were times with both of them where they took us out of our comfort zone. Not in a difficult or annoying way, but they did help us make decisions we wouldn't have made otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those decisions was on the song 'Spell', a six-minute indietronica trip on which the band sounds more exuberant than they have done in a long time. Goddard: \u201cIt was produced by Philippe and he pushed us to maintain a rather long breakdown \u2013 one of two, two and a half minutes \u2013 in the middle of the track. It felt quite confusing to me at first. As if the track is completely falling apart and being put back together again. So in the beginning I think that was one of those moments for all of us where we wondered, 'Really? Is this what we're doing? Okay, I'll have to get used to that.'\u201d 'Spell' was one of the songs the band took a demo of to Zdar's Paris studio. \u201cIt was pretty much the first thing we worked with him on,\u201d Goddard said. \u201cWe played together in his biggest studio room, which has a lot of great keyboards. Philippe modeled a song from the jam sessions: he recorded for a long time and then extracted small moments from the recordings, which he then made a whole track with.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So the breakdown continued, something Goddard certainly doesn't regret now, judging by the reaction that the moment evokes live. \u201cThe live response to that piece shows that Philippe has a lot of experience with house music and understands its dynamics very well. Because when we play that song live now, that moment when everything kind of falls apart seems to get people excited, in a really nice way. So I'm really glad we finally trusted him and ourselves.\" <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor is also very pleased with the collaboration with Zdar. \"For me, Philippe turned out to be such a good producer and work partner because he really has his own way of working. He's a lot of fun and lively in the studio, very optimistic about the possibilities of what you can do with a song. He has the skill and knowledge of an engineer and at the same time he understood a lot of our reference points: club music, German dub, techno, more classic, disco stuff. There was a lot of overlap between things we are both interested in so it felt like a good match.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n