Warmduscher - At The Hotspot (LP) - Clear Vinyl

Warmduscher have always sounded like the world’s greasiest house band, the kind you stumble on at 1 a.m. in a South London basement and never quite shake off. At The Hotspot, released in April 2022 on Bella Union, dials that energy into a neon-lit groove machine. It is still scuzzy and funny, but the band lean harder into rhythm and sheen, helped by the production team of Joe Goddard and Al Doyle from Hot Chip. That partnership makes perfect sense. Warmduscher keep the grit, Goddard and Doyle sharpen the pulse.

If you came up on Whale City and Tainted Lunch, you will recognize the barked monologues, the sleaze, the knowing grin. What feels new is how these songs slide on rails. Beats land with club muscle, bass lines snake in tight patterns, synths flash like hazard lights. The guitars jab and scrape, but they sit inside a bigger chassis now, one built for late nights. It is the record where the band’s garage-funk instincts meet a proper dance floor.

Wild Flowers shows the trick in full bloom. It struts on a bassline that begs for a packed room, and the hook sticks after one pass. You can hear the Hot Chip touch in the way the percussion flickers around the edges, giving the track lift without sanding down the band’s menace. Clams Baker Jr sits right in the pocket, half preacher, half hustler, snapping off images that feel like alleyway snapshots. The whole thing moves with a confidence they have hinted at for years.

What I love is how human it remains. The rhythms are cleaner, yet you can still smell the smoke machine and spilled beer. Warmduscher come out of the Windmill Brixton orbit, and that sense of loose, communal chaos clings to them in the best way. Even when the grooves get sleek, there is always a ragged voice in the corner cracking a joke or throwing a side-eye. The band know that the best party records need a little danger.

Production details matter here. Goddard and Doyle do not flatten the band’s personality, they frame it. Snares slap hard and dry. The low end has that rubbery Hot Chip bounce. Little synth motifs slip in as cues, like turning lights from one room to the next. The sequencing feels built for a night out, with quick hits up front, a sweaty middle stretch, and a sly comedown where the tempo loosens and the jokes get weirder. It is the rare collaboration where both sides sound more themselves.

Spin this on a decent setup and the bottom end is the star. At The Hotspot vinyl puts the kick and bass right where your chest expects them, and those little percussive tics pop out like confetti. I first clocked that when I grabbed a copy at a Melbourne record store while traveling. Back home, I lined it up next to the older Warmduscher vinyl on the shelf, and the difference in heft jumped out. If you like your dance punk to actually dance, this one earns the space. It is the sort of album that convinces you to buy Warmduscher records online at midnight because you want that club energy in your living room.

The songwriting has sharpened too. Choruses land, bridges twist back into the pocket, and the band leave air where earlier records crammed everything in. You can hear a group thinking about how these songs will feel in a room, how a snare fill will cue a cheer, how a bass drop resets a crowd’s shoulders. That intent carries a long way. It makes the quieter details hit harder, like a muttered aside, a stray handclap, a sudden organ stab.

Reception matched the step up. UK critics clocked the upgrade in groove and craft, and fans folded these tracks into the setlist as fast favorites. The record widened the circle without losing the diehards, which is a sweet spot for a band like this. If you are crate-digging and weighing Warmduscher albums on vinyl, this is the one I point to first for new listeners. It feels like an entry door that swings both ways.

Put simply, At The Hotspot turns their alleyway swagger into something you can actually move to, then leaves teeth marks on your memory. If you hunt vinyl records Australia wide or just want a copy that will get repeat spins, this is a safe bet. Warmduscher have made a party record with a pulse and a personality, and that combination is rarer than people think.