Hot Chip Announce New Album A Long Way From Kansas, Due January 8

By Elena Vasquez

Hot Chip will release their new album, A Long Way From Kansas, on January 8. The announcement arrived with a new song, "Random Violence," accompanied by a Jack Cole-directed video.

The track is a tribute to the late Optimo DJ JD Twitch. He died in September last year, months after a diagnosis of an inoperable brain tumour.

Who inspired "Random Violence"?

Keith McIvor, the DJ's real name, was a longtime friend of the band. Hot Chip's Joe Goddard said in a statement: "Last year in September our old friend and brilliant DJ Keith McIvor of Optimo in Glasgow passed away after a diagnosis of an inoperable brain tumour a few months earlier."

Goddard added: "He largely inspired the words of the song. He was a passionate music lover and a staunch believer in socialism. Many of the words relate directly to his death and to memories of being in Sub Club in Glasgow where we met 20 years ago."

What is new on the record?

The 11-track album features two notable firsts and two guests. Bandmember Felix Martin sings lead on a Hot Chip record for the first time. Beth Ditto appears on "Me In Your Head," and Eddie Chacon features on "The Garden."

The full tracklist:

• Stuck Around
• Waiting Around
• Random Violence
• The Mask Is Slipping
• Splinter
• Shortcut To Love
• Me In Your Head ft. Beth Ditto
• Hook Me Up
• Secular Hymns
• The Garden ft. Eddie Chacon
• Crushing

What have Hot Chip done since 2022?

A Long Way From Kansas follows the band's 2022 album Freakout/Release. The three-year gap has been busy. Hot Chip issued a 2025 reissue of their greatest-hits collection Joy In Repetition, appeared on the second season of Netflix's Beef, and marked the 20th anniversary of their second album, The Warning, released originally in 2004.

The January 8 release will test whether the band's grieving, Glasgow-rooted new material can convert a three-year absence into renewed momentum.