Pitchfork

When "Miami Vice" needed a song that would make an impact in the pilot episode, the TV series' producers didn't go with the slinky synth instrumentals that have, somewhat surprisingly, spawned a full-blown trend recently. They went with Phil Collins. While some Jan Hammer devotees seem to be mining this era of pop history in part for its kitsch and ironic value, Grovesnor's update of Collins-esque electro-soul frees the sounds of the 1980s from the cultural context that initially supported them (and, with changing fashions, toppled them), just as the nu-Balearic of a group like A Mountain of One can encompass the elements of prog they like without embracing the ill-founded cult of virtuosity that originally justified the genre. Hot Chip tapped Grovesnor's "Nitemoves" to open the UK group's DJ Kicks mix last year, and there was both a lovely lack of pretense about the smooth Rhodes and heart-scraping vocals, and at the same time a real cosmopolitan sophistication.

Grovesnor, aka ex-Hot Chip drummer Rob Smoughton, has turned to his former group again to remix new single "Drive Your Car", another song on a topic dear to a "Miami Vice" producer's heart. The original version is a more upbeat electro-funk number than "Nitemoves", and more up-to-the-minute production-wise from the start, although something about Smoughton's voice still screams out 80s soft rock. Hot Chip's take expands the song from four minutes to six, emphasizing a smoky bass groove and prickly electric guitars to approach the billowy beach music of Sweden's Studio. Letting the track rev its engines more gradually makes the catchy, double-time chorus even more of a contrast: "I would drive your car home every night/ Just to feel the open road," Smoughton sings. No word on whether that car is a Ferrari Testarossa or, like, a DeLorean.

[from the "Drive Your Car" single; due in April on Greco-Roman International Sonic Wrestling]