Made in the Dark

Hot Chip
Astralwerks

What lies between soulless, twee plink-plonking and endless samples that mercilessly burrow into your brain? A really fun eloctropop album. Made in the Dark is an upbeat swirl of mostly synthetic sounds that sounds very, well, human. There's a puckish sense of fun here, with most of the tracks sounding like they ought to be incidental racetrack music from the upcoming Speed Racer movie or the soundtrack to the Mario Brothers having a disco freak-out. My favorite track, "Bendable Poseable," is an irresistible wall of video arcade ambience layered over an undulating beat that should have you posing on the dance floor. The slower tracks give the album an internal rhythm but are mostly forgettable though we'll give bonus points for the unexpected soulfulness of the mournful "In The Privacy of Our Love."