Even Hot Chip claim to be amazed at how popular they have become. In little over four years the five-piece have gone from relative unknowns to a band whose tunes cabbies can hum. And they still look like teachers at a school disco.

Formed in 2000, they spent years in bedroom-recording obscurity before signing to Moshi Moshi Records in 2003. Debut LP Coming On Strong was released the following year to a sort-of-impressed but largely bemused response.

With its mix of white-boy funk and electronica and deadpan lyrics about "crap Kraft dinners" and Stevie Wonder, critics were divided as to whether they were London's answer to Goldie Lookin' Chain (one song tells of cruising round Putney in a Peugeot) or something to be taken more seriously.

Then, in 2006, they released The Warning, an indie/electro melting pot of frenetic beats, squelching synths and experimental weirdness. This ended the argument.

Greedily swooping vulture-like on any electropop influence that caught their eye, the album saw the boys switching between a retro synth sound, crazed breakbeat and twinkly, thoughtful artiness, now and again abandoning it all for joyous, no-brainer anthems like No Fit State and Over And Over, a song rivalled only by Kylie's Can't Get You Out Of My Head for driving, hypnotic danceability.

Described as "a dream synthesis of warmth and intelligence" and credited with giving "bleak electronica some much needed heart and soul", The Warning was nominated for 2006's Mercury Music Prize, eventually losing out to the Arctic Monkeys.

Stints at festivals including Barcelona's arts-and-electronica three-dayer Sonar, Bestival and Reading followed, earning the band a reputation for exciting, unpredictable live sets in which songs are rendered almost entirely unrecognisable from the album versions.

Their third album, Made In The Dark, was released earlier this month.

Partly recorded in a "proper music studio" (Shoreditch's Strongrooms) rather than a bedroom, it mixes high-tempo dance numbers with slower, ballad-style numbers.

"We wanted to record properly as a band for the first time," says Joe Goddard (vocals, synth, percussion).

"My bedroom is only six foot wide and it's got my bed in it, so I would have had to choose between my girlfriend and the band if I wanted to record in there!

"Our aim was to make the bedroom-recorded stuff like Shake A Fist and Ready For The Floor just as exciting and vital as the studio stuff."

The band is catholic in its musical influences and Made In The Dark features references as far removed as alt-country legend Willie Nelson, pianist Ray Charles and R 'n' B star R Kelly ("I think R Kelly is brilliant," says keyboardist Alexis Taylor. "There's an element of silliness, but we like the audacity of some pop music.") "Alexis is the Willie Nelson fan and I buy a lot of dance music," Joe explains. "We have a rare chemistry. I'm proud of it."

Initial reviews of the album have been mixed, describing it variously as "their most accomplished record to date" and "a missed opportunity".

The band admit to being "half-terrified" of the public's response but say they have "very high expectations" of themselves and are happy with it.

"We don't want to look good onstage or be rock stars," Joe says. "We're interested in melodies and ideas - it's lucky we chose a field of music that doesn't have much good music in it.

"We've become big fish in a small pond."

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