Future Breeds

Artist: Hot Hot Heat
Label: Dangerbird Records/Inertia
Website: hothotheat.com

You can say what you want about being on a major label but most of the time a band needs to sell records and sound commercial to stay there. Hot Hot Heat did not do either no matter how hard they tried and probably learned an important lesson, which was stay true to yourself.

Hot Hot Heat are an energetic musically hyper group that can turn lyrics on a dime, while planting a catchy as hell hook in your head. That is exactly what the group does on their Dangerbird Records debut Future Breeds, as they come at you with a flurry of rhymes, pulsing and bizarre noises and just a bit of honest desperation in the music that compulsively tunes in your interest.

Future Breeds is the sound of band that is completely free of restraint, as Hot Hot Heat offer fresh track after fresh track and never let a conventional song structure get in their way. This can be heard all over Future Breeds like the random noises in the last thirteen seconds of "Jedidiah" that range from alarms to a baby's cry. It is also in the instrumentation here that makes this record pop like the quick spinning guitar riff in "21@12", which keeps your foot tapping and sticks the track in your head well after its conclusion.

This record still does not best the band's now classic Make Up the Breakdown [2002] but definitely surpasses their meandering major label years and is a true fresh start for Hot Hot Heat, as they prove that they still have plenty of musical tricks up their sleeve.

Christopher Anthony

For more of Christopher Anthony's music reviews, check out The Fire Note