HOT CHIP ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM FREAKOUT/RELEASE OUT AUGUST 19 + SHARE NEW SINGLE “DOWN” | US & EUROPEAN TOUR ANNOUNCED
DOMINO RECORDS
Hot Chip are pleased to confirm news of the eighth album Freakout/Release, due for release on August 19 via Domino. Freakout/Release is another dizzying high in a multi-decade career that’s seen Hot Chip continuing to innovate and develop a rich, resonant songcraft. And while they continue to operate at peak form, the album also feels like a new chapter for the group—a collection of flesh-and-blood songs that finds the band reaching into the darkness to emerge as a true creative unit, their gazes fixed positively on the future ahead.
The five piece – comprised of Owen Clarke, Al Doyle, Joe Goddard, Felix Martin (not pictured in background photo) and Alexis Taylor – also share the first cut from the record, the album’s vibrant and expansive opening track “Down”
“Down” was the first song the band worked on for the record; anchored around a sample of Universal Togetherness Band’s “More Than Enough” that Joe Goddard had looped, it kicked off the writing process and the band finished the song in a burst of energy. The video directed by Douglas Hart and Steve Mackey merges strobing lights, metal welding, distorted images of the band alongside a reference to The Shining.
About Freakout/Release
Freakout/Release was written and recorded in the band’s newly minted Relax & Enjoy studio in East London, a creative space that Al Doyle put together before and during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Coalescing in the Relax & Enjoy studio was essential in establishing the album’s lively, full-band sound and marks the first time Hot Chip began work on a new record all together as well as reuniting them in the same room for the first time following their touring behind 2019’s A Bath Full Of Ecstasy.
Fittingly, harnessing Hot Chip’s irreplicable live energy in a studio space was in the front of the band’s mind, as they found themselves particularly inspired by their cover of Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” that’s become a setlist staple. “The idea of being out of control is always there in dance music, in a positive sense,” Doyle explains while discussing the cover’s influence on the new album.
“By the time we were able to be back together, we were turning on a tap and having a lot of ideas being poured out quite quickly” adds Alexis Taylor. Joe Goddard describes the creative plan of attack as creating “In a natural way, without too much discussion or a grand plan.” This improvisatory vibe was supported by the new studio space, Doyle adds: “Everything’s on all the time, and it’s very easy to capture what we’re doing.”
Lyrically, Freakout/Release explores darker emotions than previous Hot Chip albums have, drawing from the personal and the political to chart the ways people survive even amidst immovable struggles. “We were living through a period where it was very easy to feel like people were losing control of their lives in different ways,” Goddard explains. “There’s a darkness that runs through a lot of those tracks.” Thankfully, Hot Chip aren’t alone while exploring emotionally uncertain territory. Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon features on “The Evil That Men Do”, British DJ and musician Lou Hayter lends her vocals to the slinky “Hard to Be Funky,” while legendary production duo Soulwax contribute additional magic to the raucous title track.
Over the last 18 years, Hot Chip have established themselves among similar British luminaries like Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode—a true gap-bridging between the worlds of pop and dance music, with a catalogue of songs that move bodies and touch hearts with equal impact. Along with a 4-night residency planned at London’s Brixton Academy this September, the eleven songs on Freakout/Release are evidence that the band’s not even close to slowing down—even as it’s clear that the weight of the world has seeped into these tunes’ nooks and crannies.
Tour Dates
April 19 – The Warfield, San Francisco
April 22 – Humphrey’s Concerts, San Diego
April 23 – Coachella, Indio
April 24 – The Van Buren, Phoenix
April 26 – Mission Ballroom, Denver
April 27 – Sunshine Theater, Albuquerque
April 29 – House of Blues, Dallas
April 30 – Stubb’s Waller Amphitheater, Austin
May 2 – Brooklyn Bowl, Nashville
May 3 – Tabernacle, Atlanta
May 5 – The Orange Peel, Asheville
May 7 – Pulso GNP Festival, Mexico City
May 9 – House of Blues, Boston
May 10 – Avant Gardner, Brooklyn
May 11 – Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia
May 13 – Stage AE, Pittsburgh
May 14 – Radius, Chicago
June 3 – Junction 1 Summer Series, Glasgow
June 5 – Forbidden Fruit, Dublin
July 8 – Cruilla Barcelona
July 15 – Super Bock Super Rock, Lisbon
July 16 – Beat Herder, Clitheroe
August 6 – Wide Skies & Butterflies, Norfolk
September 2 – Cala Mijas Festival, Malaga
September 21 – o2 Academy Brixton, London
September 22 – o2 Academy Brixton, London
September 23 – o2 Academy Brixton, London
September 24 – o2 Academy Brixton, London
October 1 – Tempodrom, Berlin
October 2 – Live Music Hall, Cologne
October 3 – AB Ballroom, Brussels
October 5 – Tivoli Ronda, Utrecht
October 8 – Olympia, Paris
Pre-sale tickets from April 21 @ 9am local, general tickets on sale April 22 @ 9am local.
For pre-sale access to the UK tour, you can pre-order the album.
Freakout/Release will be available on Dom Mart exclusive orange-coloured double vinyl, Indies exclusive brown-coloured double vinyl, standard double vinyl, CD and digitally. All vinyl editions have an exclusive track “The Most Painful Game”. Pre-order: Dom Mart | Digital.
Artist Links
Background Photo Credit: Matilda Hill-Jenkins
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