"Shake a Fist" is the first single released by Hot Chip

Hot Chip

Hot Chip are an English electronic indie band. They have released four studio albums—Coming on Strong, The Warning, Made in the Dark and One Life Stand.-Formation:...

 from their 2008

2008 in music

2008 was a huge year in music history with the emergence of pop superstars Lady Gaga and Katy Perry into the mainstream. Also, this is the year that is widely agreed upon by critics as the start of the fall of hip hop from the mainstream and the rise of Synthpop into the mainstream due to acts such...

 album Made in the Dark

Made in the Dark

Made in the Dark is the third studio album from British electronic indie pop band Hot Chip. The album, of 13 songs, was released on 4 February 2008 on the EMI label. It peaked at number four on the UK Album Chart, number 25 on the Australian album charts, and entered at number 109 on the U.S....

. It was released on 30 August 2007 on 12" vinyl single. The song was almost included on Hot Chip's second album release, The Warning

The Warning (Hot Chip album)

The Warning is the second full-length release from the British electronic indie pop band Hot Chip. The album was released in the UK on 22 May 2006 by EMI and in the United States on 3 June 2006 by Astralwerks...

.

Lyrics

Alexis Taylor stated that the lyrics, "I move underwater, I eat what I slaughter", were formed as a result of him "imagining what it would be like to take salvia divinorum

Salvia divinorum

Salvia divinorum is a psychoactive plant which can induce dissociative effects and is a potent producer of "visions" and other hallucinatory experiences...

", which Joe Goddard had taken at Glastonbury Festival

Glastonbury Festival

The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...

. The song itself was the product of Goddard's experience, which Taylor wrote down words to accompany.

Critical reception

"Shake a Fist" was described by The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

as a "brooding, industrial, 12-inch introduction to Made in the Dark". Prefix magazine described the song as having "squeaky synths and a laid back bass line playing sidekick to ominous urban jungle drums" with vocals that have "a well defined power dynamic", whilst bbc.co.uk

Bbc.co.uk

BBC Online is the brand name and home for the BBC's UK online service. It is a large network of websites including such high profile sites as BBC News and Sport, the on-demand video and radio services co-branded BBC iPlayer, the pre-school site Cbeebies, and learning services such as Bitesize...

 said the song "blends terrific acidic bass [with] jagged snares" and has "shamanic backing vocals". The Irish Times

The Irish Times

The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...

characterised "Shake a Fist" as "a dizzy skyscraper of a track, full to the brim with sonic smarts and tricks yet hard-wired to a snaking, nagging groove".

A sample

Sampling (music)

In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...

 of Todd Rundgren

Todd Rundgren

Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...

's voice was used as a result of Al Doyle and Alexis Taylor being fans of Todd Rundgren's third solo album, Something/Anything?

Something/Anything?

Something/Anything?, released in 1972, is Todd Rundgren's third solo album. It peaked at #29 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold three years after its release, and remains the singer-songwriter's best-selling album...

. The reception to the sample was mixed; MusicOMH

MusicOMH

musicOMH is a United Kingdom-based website which publishes independent reviews, featues and interviews from across all musical genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B.-History:...

 called it "delightful" but The Guardian felt it "grated". The Toronto Star highlighted "Shake a Fist" as a "top track", and described the song as "more intense and vaguely threatening than anything they've done before", although the use of the Todd Rundgren sample was described as "intrusive".