Hot Chip’s “Made In The Dark,” the British bands third album, is a bizarre, weird and wonderful excursion into the technical world of electronica. Their first record, the disappointing “Coming On Strong,” failed to live up to its name; it did however show interesting signs of potential through the bands keen desire to experiment with conventional pop sounds, simply by combining them with keen twists and distortions. Their second album, 2005’s “The Warning,” proved the suspected potential was on the mark; the record pushed the envelope in many places artistically and, overall, delivered the goods. But this third effort is their true musical opus. The band have finally found a happy medium between strange and mainstream. The first single from the new record, “Ready For The Floor,” is a classy testament to the claim. Originally written for Kylie Minogue, the song has now become far and away their greatest single to date. After Minogue’s camp rejected this classic piece of pop perfection, the boys decided to record it themselves and, in turn, probably made it sound a lot better than Minogue ever could have.

But the lead single isn’t where the true genius behind “Made In The Dark” lies. Album opener “Out At The Pictures” is a psychotic slab of Kids-In-America-meets-Austin-Powers techno which is strong enough to be a hit single, whilst “Shake A Fist’ revisits the drama and soul of their previous record with the inclusion of some hypnotic 1990’s inspired sound effects. “One Pure Thought” boasts a seriously killer chorus over a bouncy progressive deep house beat, whilst “Hold On” sounds stunningly fresh in its homage to the guitar-driven basslines of 70’s disco. “Made In The Dark” saves its finest moment, however, for the final few minutes of the disc, in the raverific “Don’t Dance,” which starts off remarkably differently to the way it ends. An absolute monster of a track that reaches orgasmic heights from the 2:20 mark onward.  Exceptional stuff.

Congratulations Hot Chip; your new long player is the first proper contender for Album of the year.