Pop songs repetitive enough to appeal to the dance set. Dance sets poppy enough to beg constant repetition. Fun songs about love. Love songs about fun. These are just some of the reasons why Hot Chip may be the closest thing we have to an indie music Switzerland. Different factions may try to claim them as their own, but the London electro-pop quintet has managed to remain largely nondiscriminatory with their output. It's so-called "poptimism" of the best kind: Hot Chip's answer to every genre always seems to be a resounding, open-armed "yes."

Spanning blue-eyed soul, synthpop, r&b, and geek-rock, Hot Chip's musical hybrid is a lovable (if unlikely) one-- and, mostly for utilitarian reasons, it's not one you'd expect them to clearly communicate during the course of a single-CD mix. Nonetheless, that's exactly what they do with their entry in !K7's acclaimed DJ Kicks series. A mulched-up whirlwind of pretty much everything they hold near and dear, the disc darts through drivetime FM soul, goofy techno, cartoonish fun, and big synthpop moments, taking the best few minutes (or in some cases, few seconds) of each of these 24 tracks and cramming it all into a breakneck 68 minutes.

As you might imagine, the only way anyone could ever pull this off would be to cop to a bit of A.D.D., so DJ Kicks flits excitedly and unapologetically from one listening station to the next. Amidst the madness, though, there is a vague sense of order in the form of four loosely defined acts: a) The goofy party stuff, b) The retro block, c) The techno half-hour, and d) The closing free-for-all. It's a structure that basically mimics that of their more substantial live DJ sets, albeit on a much more condensed scale.

Hot Chip's occasional proximity to yacht rock has been well-documented, and it's a sound they good-naturedly embrace here by bookending their mix with two derivatives; first, the opening ballad "Nitemoves", courtesy of new act Grovesnor (aka former Hot Chip drummer Rob Smoughton), which starts with a WKRP-ready palette of Rhodes piano and blue eyed vox before sputtering into a mess of programmed drums and synth squibbles; later, Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out", which they show deference to by playing out in full. There's also pinches of hip-hop here and there, such as a quick verse from Positive K's 1992 hit "I Got a Man" and current Baltimore phenom Young Leek's "Jiggle It". That the latter is preceded by New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle" and followed by Etta James' "In the Basement" should clue you in to what you're in for. This is fun by the minute-- no buildup, all payoff, but happily, it works.

The mini techno set in the latter half of the mix provides a bit of room to breathe, and gives Hot Chip a chance to acquit themselves as guys who are just as capable of spinning at five a.m. as midnight. Selections from Dominik Eulberg, Gabriel Ananda, and Marek Bois all stand out, but it's Noze's off-kilter "Love Affair" that has the last laugh, melding a tight, clattering groove with an English lyric made charming by the French accents singing it: "I wash my fit and I feel so good/ I brush my tiff and I feel so good/ I clean my nose and I'm ready for my love affair/ For my love affair!" A beguiling mix of technical precision, fun pop, and dumb humor, it's the one track on the mix you suspect Hot Chip probably feel closest to.

At the end of the day, though, the reason this works so well is because Hot Chip never seem too close to any of the music presented; there's a nice democracy to the way this stuff's been blenderized to a neon pulp. It provides the sense that they're too busy rummaging through their record bags for the next big moment to worry all that much about things like pace and structure. Turn yourself over to those moments for an hour, and you won't end up worrying much about anything at all.