Various Artists

Hot Chip: DJ Kicks

K7/Outside

Kevin Ritchie (CHARTattack)

05/15/2007 2:10pm

Now that every musician is also a DJ, it's inevitable that every musician will do a DJ mix. Hot Chip's effort arrives on the prestigious DJ Kicks imprint, placing them alongside turntable tastemakers like Carl Craig, Chicken Lips and Tiga. Much like the band's gleefully scatterbrained pop, the emphasis in this mix is on "no format" eclecticism rather than an obvious theme. Save for a few token new wave/hip-hop mashes (New Order's "Blue Monday" meets Baltimore partier Young Leek's "Jiggle It," for example) that get things rolling, Hot Chip's selections are seriously nerdy, blending new and old soul, German house, techno and British prog-rock. Their own song, "My Piano (DJ Kicks)," a repetitive, percussion-and-piano-driven genre-defying shaker, embodies the spirit of this record. It's the kind of missing link track that this mix revels in — a song that celebrates and ties together the shared energy that exists in all good music.