Joe Goddard ★★★
Harmonics DOMINO. CD/DL/LP
Hot Chip man’s dance-pop treatise on untrammelled joy.
Joe Goddard and fellow Hot Chip member Alexis Taylor recently opened an east London studio called Relax And Enjoy. It’s a credo apparent on Goddard’s third solo album – whose eclectic guest list combine to celebrate the value of creatively letting go. Harmony, both musical and inter-personal, is a key focus on a record that hops from pop to rap and along the dance music continuum. The sweet-natured Moments Die, a Caribou-like twirl of dance-pop featuring Brooklyn-based vocalist Barrie, cosies up next to Progress, where Ibibio Sound Machine’s shrill Afro-calypso horns battle with ray-gun pulses in unabashed Europop style. When Goddard himself provides vocals – notably on Follow You and On My Mind – it adds necessary cohesion. Amid the collaborative miscellany, ex-Wild Beasts frontman Hayden Thorpe stands out, his warm falsetto helping twist Summon into an understated house fantasia. In all, Harmonics is unfailingly joyful and, sometimes, triumphant.