Hot Chip Announce A Long Way From Kansas With JD Twitch Tribute

A ninth album, a eulogy and a run of dates

Hot Chip have confirmed their ninth studio album. It is called A Long Way From Kansas and Domino will release it on January 8, 2027.105 The British electronic group introduced it with a lead single, "Random Violence," and a music video, and they announced a UK and European tour for February and March 2027.410 The full announcement came out on Monday, October 19.16

In outline it looks like an ordinary album rollout, but the details make it more personal than that. "Random Violence" is a tribute to Keith McIvor, the Glasgow DJ known as JD Twitch, who co-founded the club night Optimo at the Sub Club. Optimo later grew into a musical project and a record label.4 McIvor died in September 2025, a few months after he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.314 So the album's first statement doubles as a eulogy. That fits the way the band describe the whole record: as their answer to a world they find harsh and unsettled.

"Random Violence" and the Optimo connection

Every outlet carries the same statement from Joe Goddard. In it he says McIvor inspired most of the song's lyrics, calls him a devoted music lover and a firm socialist, and explains that many lines refer to his death and to the night the two met at the Sub Club about 20 years ago.1327 Goddard sings the opening lead vocal, and Alexis Taylor comes in later in the song.4 Some quoted lyrics describe a man who spent his life sending songs out into the world "like tall ships in the wind." Taylor's answering line thanks him for giving the singer something to believe in.6

The write-ups describe the song in different ways. Consequence focuses on structure: Goddard's and Taylor's voices are set against each other, and the song places acts of kindness next to violence to reflect the warmth McIvor encouraged in others.10 SPIN calls it a song that turns grief into a rallying cry for music and solidarity.2 The label-adjacent copy that several UK outlets reproduced goes further, calling it "majestic" and saying it sets the tone for the whole album.91 Those are framings, not neutral descriptions. On the core facts, though, every outlet agrees: this is a memorial song with a clear political edge, and the band say so.

The band also tied the release to a real event. On Wednesday, October 21, two days after the announcement, Hot Chip DJed with friends at the Sub Club in honour of McIvor's legacy.15 Putting the first public moment of a new album cycle back in the club where the friendship began shows the band treating the tribute as a commitment to that community, not just a theme for a press release.

Morris dancers, woodland spirits and protest signs

Jack Cole directed the video. It features Boss Morris, an all-female progressive morris dancing group.1114 Al Doyle says the band brought in woodland spirits, cursed animals and wild dancers to celebrate humanity, remembrance and resistance. He says the idea came from Optimo's "Espookio" Halloween parties at the Sub Club.112

The German magazine Visions describes the most political content. It reports that dancers carry protest signs with activist slogans and symbols, styled in the red and yellow it associates with socialism, while the costumes also nod to McIvor's Halloween parties. English-language coverage mostly settles for words like "resistance" and "togetherness."915 Taken together, the visual language looks more openly left-wing than the band's own statements say outright. That suits a song about a man Goddard describes first as a socialist.

A darker, noisier Hot Chip

The album's title comes from The Wizard of Oz. Coverage reads it as a reference to Dorothy's long journey back home and her search for something familiar.16 Taylor's statement explains why the band felt so far from home. He says the record reflects a world that felt harsh, discordant, violent and depressing while they were making it. Not every song deals with politics or genocide, he adds, but that backdrop was impossible to avoid.103 He also says "distortion" became a watchword for the whole record.6

The band recorded the album earlier this year at Relax and Enjoy, the East London studio owned by Goddard and Doyle.14 Reports describe a rougher sound than usual. SPIN mentions distortion, decay and dissonance, though it says the communal pleasures at the centre of the band's music are still there.2 Consequence alone calls the new direction "punk-influenced."10 No other outlet uses that label, so it is best read as one writer's impression from a single song, not a settled description of an album nobody outside the band has heard.

The record also has more voices on it than any earlier Hot Chip album. Felix Martin sings on a Hot Chip record for the first time, Owen Clarke also sings, and the album includes a choir and plenty of group vocals.1311 Taylor says the band like opening up their inner world and bringing all those voices together. There are two guests. Beth Ditto of Gossip appears on "Me In Your Head" and Eddie Chacon on "The Garden."145 The 11-song tracklist opens with "Stuck Around" and "Waiting Around," places "Random Violence" third, and closes with "Crushing."13 Song titles such as "The Mask Is Slipping" and "Secular Hymns" fit the album's mix of unease and togetherness.4

Context: the band after a year of looking back

This is Hot Chip's first studio album since Freakout/Release in 2022.5 Much of the time since then went into looking back. Pitchfork notes a 2025 reissue of the greatest-hits collection Joy In Repetition.13 Treble says the band reissued three of their classic albums earlier this year.8 In May the band marked 20 years of their second album, The Warning, including an episode of Song Exploder.2 They also appeared in the second season of Netflix's Beef, performing live with Oscar Isaac.10

The Glitterbeam write-up puts it well: after a period focused on the past, the new announcement shifts attention back to new studio work.16 There is also activity outside the main band. Resident Advisor reports that Doyle, who also plays in LCD Soundsystem, has announced a solo album, Hollywood Saviour, due November 20 on DFA Records.17 That a band this busy with side projects and anniversaries chose to come back with something this pointed suggests the new material mattered to them.

Tour dates, and where the listings disagree

The live run opens on February 26 at Astra in Berlin and continues to Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin. The UK leg follows and ends on March 12 at Exhibition White City in London.414 The Dublin show is at 3Olympia Theatre on March 4.3 General sale opened on Friday, October 23, and fans who pre-order the album get access to a presale.169 SPIN and Decoded say the tour follows a sold-out four-night residency at Brixton Academy.2

The published itineraries do not all match. Most outlets list Glasgow's SWG3 Galvanizers on March 8, Manchester's Albert Hall on March 9 and Bristol's O2 Academy on March 10, with no Birmingham date.414 Consequence lists Glasgow on March 7, Manchester on March 8 and an extra show at Birmingham's O2 Institute on March 9.10 The Glitterbeam UK list counts five headline dates, which supports the majority version.16 Fans should check the official ticket pages before booking. Resident Advisor also mentions South American shows for the rest of 2026, which no other outlet reports.17 Its listing gives the release year as 2026, which looks like a simple slip given that every other outlet says January 2027.511

The reading

Read together, the coverage shows a band that has chosen to make its grief and politics the centre of this album launch. In the past Hot Chip have often hidden melancholy inside dance music. This time they lead with a memorial song for a socialist DJ, back it with a club night in his honour and add a video full of protest imagery. Whether the album really sounds as rough as the press language suggests will only be clear in January. What the announcement already shows is that Hot Chip are presenting A Long Way From Kansas as their most openly engaged record, and they are using community, both the Sub Club crowd and the group vocals on the album, as their answer to the world they describe.