Hot Chip have amassed a name for themselves as one of the UK’s most prolific, and consistent synth-pop acts of the last few decades; churning out new music give or take every 2 years since 2004 has led to a pretty dedicated legion of fans. Today, the band have announced their upcoming 8^th LP Freakout / Release, set to drop on August 18^th. This will be the follow up to their 2019 output A Bath Full Of Ecstasy, you can find pre-order information here. To mark the occasion, the band have also released our first taste of the new tunes with “Down”. If the new single is anything to go by, then fans of Hot Chip will probably enjoy it, their idiosyncratic sound comes through in full force here. You can listen to the new track, and watch its accompanying Douglas Hart and Steve Mackey directed video below.

Al Doyle, one of the band’s many multi-instrumentalists, explained the album’s inspiration in a press release, “The idea of being out of control is always there in dance music, in a positive sense.” Frontman Alexis Taylor added, “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.” While everyone was commenting on the album, Joe Goddard, again a multi-instrumentalist, also decided to add, “We were living through a period where it was very easy to feel like people were losing control of their lives in different ways. There’s a darkness that runs through a lot of those tracks.”

In keeping with the band’s usual brand of partying, go big or go home, they have decided to commemorate the album’s release with a 4-night stint at London’s iconic Brixton Academy. Set for September 21^st, the band will play 4 shows on consecutive nights presumably with myriad musical guests. The new album sees contributions from Soulwax, Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon, and London’s own DJ and musician Lou Hayter, so maybe a few surprise guests along the way are a reasonable thing to expect. Tickets for these shows go on sale this Friday (April 22^nd) at 9am. You can find out more ticket information here. The shows come in the middle of a pre-existing tour that will take the band all across the states, and then around Europe’s festival scene. So even if you don’t manage to bag any tickets to the Brixton shows, you’re never a million miles away from one of their shows.