Album: Hot Chip, Made in the Dark, (EMI)

I get the impression electronic music has been slipping backwards since the halcyon days of Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder and Derrick May. Only occasionally do the industrious efforts of Hot Chip on this follow-up to The Warning evoke any physical response: they're either too concerned about stringing unconnected sections together in prog-rock manner, as in "Out At the Pictures", or allowing maths to dominate at the expense of mood.

Click the arrow to listen to a clip of Hot Chip's track 'Ready For The Floor', taken from the album.

There's no subtlety to the hyperactive groove of "Shake a Fist", its bass-drum pulse crowded out by small, clattery percussion and buzzy synth stabs, and no grasp of the way different sounds prompt responses from different parts of the body. Dance depends on the infectious linkage of such movements, but the slice'*'dice approach to beats in tracks like "Touch Too Much" and the aptly titled "Don't Dance" is too mechanistic. There's an itchy appeal about "Ready For the Floor" and "We're Looking For a Lot of Love", but the overall mood is of musos trying too hard to impress, rather than express.

Download this: 'Ready For the Floor', 'We're Looking For a Lot of Love', 'Bendable Poseable'