Hot Club De Paris - Live At Dead Lake

Despite the misleading title, ‘Live At Dead Lake’ is actually the second studio album from the Scouse Hot Club and expands upon the artrock template that fans will be familiar with. Whilst the phrase ‘math rock’ gets banded around Hot Club de Paris often due to their odd interlocking rhythms, it needs to be made clear that this is not a Foals record, and what’s more is all the better for it. ‘Live At Dead Lake’ has it’s own distinct yet often quirky identity.

The opening triplet of songs on the album can be enjoyed as easily as one piece of work for they all seamlessly segue into each other, yet all remain distinctive and original, with intricate guitar and bass lines interlocking with each other and the rolls of the toms. The first great chorus of the record appears on second track ‘My Little Haunting’, yet the Hot Club aren’t ones to throw away all their ideas immediately. It’s followed by ‘I Wasn’t Being Heartless When I Said That Your Favourite Song Lacked Heart’, which continues the bands longer running theme of (too?) zany song titles. Throughout all of this however the basic principle of writing a superb stand-alone song is not forgotten. Their ability to write what is simply a fantastic pop single is demonstrated in the form of ‘Hey Housebrick’ which forms the albums centrepiece and is bracketed by delicate short instrumentals, simply to accentuate the life-affirming brilliance of a song chronicling urban decay directed at a simple brick.

After the albums pop song has got out of the way however Hot Club really shine and show how much their own band they actually are. ‘Boy Awaits Return Of The Runaway Girl’ soars to heights that they never reached on the art-pop-punk of the first record and is followed by ‘The Dice Just Wasn’t Loaded From The Start’ which is built around the percussion adds little over the top of this and ends with the refrain of ‘Would you mind if I miss you missing me’ which recalls the softer moments of the first record. It’s these softer moments that make the album through grounding it in the human. This and ‘Found Sleeping’ which features slightly more production on an otherwise sparser sounding record give the moments of beauty that are sorely needed on other albums of this ilk. Closer ‘Sparrow Flew With Swallow’s Wings’ however, brings out the hip-hop in the Hot Club and ensures there’s still bafflement.

Unfortunately, whilst demonstrating the superb musicianship that has gone into these songs Hot Club de Paris has sacrificed one of their major strong points, that is to say that ‘Live At Dead Lake’ has less a’capella and vocal harmonising than predecessor ‘Drop It ‘Til It Pops’. Yet for all that it is possible for the listener who is to invest the time in this record and actually sit back and properly listen, and get lost in the instrumental intertwining that manages always to stay on the right side of twiddly - the longest song on offer here is the 3 minutes 38 seconds ‘Let Go Of Everything’.

Whilst this album may not be as strong as recent efforts by artrock contemporaries such as The Futureheads, it’s still an enjoyable and immensely unique offering that has depth, danceability and intricacy.