By the time the four-man disco band take the stage at Great Scott, the crowd is so jammed into the Allston venue, you’d swear it was a Saturday night. But it’s a week ago Monday, and the fact that all these scruffy hipsters braved the cold for this early-in-the-week gig by Hot Chip attests to the power of persistence — and dedication. Hot Chip have been releasing material for more than six years now, but they’re only just breaking into the US. Their debut, Coming On Strong, finally came out here on DFA/Astralwerks in late 2005. The drummer has the flu, the tour manager’s late, but nothing’s keeping Hot Chip’s electro-funk grooves down tonight. The crowd hoots in hoodies and pogos in parkas.
Hot Chip are one of those special acts you almost regret telling friends about. Singer Alexis Taylor has a voice that lifts as much as it drives. Equipped with Casios, Arps, Moogs, and even a few guitars, the rest of the band stand with him in a row, unified in their quest for the groove. “For a long time when I was a kid, I hated house music,” admits Joe Goddard, the “beat master” who founded Hot Chip with Taylor, when we talk before the show. “I wasn’t a dance fan. But Daft Punk and the Basement Jaxx, they’re a little more song-based, aren’t they? It becomes a lot easier for an indie kid to get that . . . ”
This isn’t straight house by any means. Taylor’s vocals are more Dirty Mind than diva, but it’s that beat that pervades all that is Hot Chip. Live, positioned on the right, Goddard nods along to every programmed beat. Their mastery of groove has them on the short list for that staple of dance culture — the remix. They’ve left their mark on tracks by everyone from Conor “Bright Eyes” Oberst to Mancunian house wunderkind Brooks. They recently had a go at Jamie Lidell’s “Multiply,” generating one of the more compelling remixes of 2005. “Multiply (Hot Chip’s Mouth Remix)” splits Lidell’s vocals into stuttering beats and adds cathedral-like ambiance. Taylor and Goddard do the bulk of the remixing. But the others — Felix Martin and Al Doyle — have been getting involved too; they did the Lidell mix, and the four have begun to collaborate more often. Goddard notes, “It means we can spread our name around a little more and do different types of things.”
That hasn’t kept Hot Chip from their own work: they’ve already finished a new album and an EP to follow. “When we have a day off and can just sit in the hotel room and make a track — it’s wicked,” Goddard adds. “It’s just a laptop and a couple of our keyboards and whatever we want — it’s good fun.”
Hot Chip have also promoted their graphic designer to band member. Keyboardist/guitarist Owen Clarke was the group’s artistic eye before he started contributing his musical talents. “Increasingly it’s very hard to control your image,” Goddard explains. “We have EMI telling us you need to have this person or that person doing our videos . . . but Owen started off doing the artwork for the band.” It’s a visual ethic that recalls art-rock groups like Le Tigre and Talking Heads.
Goddard readily mentions Aphex Twin, Rephlex, and the Warp label when he talks about his early exposure to dance culture, and he’s not afraid to discuss the D-word. “I like taking drugs and losing yourself for five hours or something,” he laughs. “I love concentrating on the music and moving and washing away everything else. When you have those classic nights where you’re dancing with your friends for hours, it just refreshes you.”
One track that’s surely been a soundtrack for one of Goddard’s “classic nights” is the Orb’s “Little Fluffy Clouds,” an electronic anthem that’s been compiled, remixed, and playlisted more than any other rave track in history. It was even part of a VW ad campaign. This Monday, the legendary duo come to Boston for the first time in more than a decade, sporting a new CD on a new label and a new attitude. “We’re flying to America, and then we’re getting into, well, basically a car,” says Orb founder Alex Paterson over the phone from a London studio. “That’s how were traveling this time. We’re not taking a tour bus with all sorts of gear. We’re calling it ‘A Merry Car to America.’ ”