Hot Chip belongs to a lineage of great British pop eccentrics. The band's two-decade career is full of gloriously idiosyncratic contradictions: the London five-piece is one of the best exponents of electronic pop the U.K. has ever produced, yet ridiculously boast only one actual hit single. The band makes euphoric, house-inflected electronica that beats with the heart and soul of the truly melancholic. Its members are reserved characters who transform into an all-dancing patchwork of garish outfits for their irrepressibly joyous live shows.
Across Europe, Hot Chip has reached festival headliner status, yet its members retain largely anonymous profiles off-stage. In the disposable age of Tinder, they exalt the virtues of love and monogamy in their music. They are equally at home DJing obscure sets in small clubs as writing for chart royalty, Katy Perry.
The band's new album has led to a multi-continent tour, taking in North and South America, large parts of Europe and Japan, where the group will play in Osaka and Tokyo in early October.