STANDING almost alone as purveyors of synth/electro pop, Hot Chip have evolved with each album - honing their sound into a more polished commercial vibe while still frantically juggling with their own individual side projects such as The Two Bears and About Group.

The main questions before last night's gig at Southampton Guildhall was could they battle and win against the normally indifferent acoustics within the venue, would Alexis Taylor's occasionally hit and miss voice cut it live, and how would their recent material transform itself without losing the inventiveness and edge of accompanying live shows of previous albums.

On the whole most of the fears above appeared to be unfounded as from the opening chords of Motion Sickness, it was apparent that Hot Chip are up there with the best live acts in terms of tightness as a unit, while taking a great deal of pride in the more technical aspect and sound clarity of their performances .

Playing for just over 90 minutes a mixture of more accessible and obvious back catalogue tracks were cleverly incorporated into a set leaning heavily to the new offering 'In Our Heads' released earlier this year.

Highlights from that include the equally epic and sublime seven-minute first single Flutes and the far more upbeat, and unashamedly retro, Night and Day.

In stark contrast most of the older material was given a sympathetic re-working to keep the songs fresh - never more so apparent than in the heavily guitar weighted Over and Over or the padded out version of Ready For The Floor which almost seamlessly transcended into Fleetwood Mac's Everywhere.

With the exception of Joe Goddard and new band member drummer Sarah Jones, every member proved themselves multi-instrumentalists, swapping each others'

roles accordingly making for interesting viewing and also confirming the underated talents of this now seven-piece.

A great live performance was also supplemented by the advent of Mercury Prize nominated support Django Django who, after first song technical gremlins, recovered to deliver an inventive user-friendly set from possibly one of the best debut albums of recent years.

Jonothan Hughes