Hot Chip Hot Tip for Mercury Award

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Putney band nominated for leading pop music prize

Hot Chip the widely praised group who hail from Putney have succeeded in gaining a nomination for this year's prestigious Mercury Prize.

They will be up against hot favourites the Arctic Monkeys and other well-known acts such as Scritti Pollitti but can take heart from last year's award when relative outsiders, Anthony and the Johnsons surprised everyone by getting the vote ahead of the Kaiser Chiefs.

Hot Chip list a range of influences ranging from Kraftwerk, the Beach Boys and Phil Spector. They have gone against the recent trend in the current crop of indie bands for guitar based sounds by featuring 4 keyboard players and a drum machine.

Despite using synthesisers and computers extensively in their music they never play pre-recorded material at gigs. The band say of their music, "We decided to write folk songs and record them on old synthesizers. We decided to sing honest words about food and love, and try to make people laugh the way you laugh at Richard Pryor in the same song too."

July 20, 2006