大象传媒

Hot Chip play a Sofa Session for Jo, including music from their new album 'Freakout/Release'.

Freakout/Release is Hot Chip鈥檚 eighth album and was written and recorded in the band鈥檚 newly minted studio, Relax & Enjoy, in East London, a creative space that Al Doyle put together before and during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

'It was a space I built with making Hot Chip records in mind,' he explains. 'As a group of people, we鈥檙e quite impatient鈥攊t鈥檚 not always fun when you鈥檙e in the studio and it鈥檚 taking time to set something up before you can execute an idea. Everything鈥檚 on all the time, and it鈥檚 very easy to capture what we鈥檙e doing.'

Coalescing in the studio was essential in establishing 'Freakout/Release'鈥檚 lively, full-band sound鈥攁nd it marked the first time the band was able to be in the same room together following touring behind 2019鈥檚 'A Bath Full of Ecstasy', which ended right before the beginning of the pandemic.

Joe Goddard describes the creative plan of attack as creating 'In a natural way, without too much discussion or a grand plan.'