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| Lindsay Pollock |
New Build will appeal to fans of Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem, if only because it's made up of members of Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem. The triowhich will expand to a seven-piece (!!!) live band for its two sold-out shows at Mercury Lounge on Tuesday and Wednesdaycounts among its members Felix Martin and Al Doyle of Hot Chip, the latter of which also played myriad instruments for the late LCD's live show, and producer/DJ Tom Hopkins, who, amongst other things, works as an engineer at Martin and Doyle's East London recording space, Lanark Studios. Their debut album, Yesterday Was Lived and Lost, drops April 3 on their own Lanark Recordings imprint, and it's an enjoyable mix of intergalactic Eno pop, propulsive beats, disco riffage and elegant string arrangements.
The project's been sitting on the back burner for a while now. "There's so much going on that we haven't had time to devote ourselves to it," Doyle says. "Then, last year, we had this nice stretch of time. We basically finished a lot of things off and then decided we could make it work as a live thing." As for that name: "I like the word 'new,' I guesslike we're making some kind of statement, like a break from something else," Doyle says. "In the UK, the phrase 'new build' denotes these ugly houses that get built on the outskirts of town where they're trying to get people to move in, like local workers. It's actually got quite a lot of negative connotation in the UK. Somehow, it seemed attractive to us. It was the name we hated the least. [laughs] It's kind of snappy and it looks good on the page. I should've come up with an amazing story."
With Hot Chip's fifth full-length album, In Our Heads, coming in June, New Build's time to promote its debut is relatively briefa smattering of live dates in the U.S. and Europe, and then it's back to the main gig for Doyle and Martin. Sound of the City thought it only fitting to ask a member of a spin-off for some of his favorite spin-offs, and Doyle was exceedingly game in his replies, picking a band, an author and a restaurant, each with ties to New York.
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