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LP
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ORBS 001LP
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Best known as Hot Chip's clear-voiced frontman, Alexis Taylor also pursues a solo career as an introspective singer/songwriter, exploring distinct themes and ideas with each record. Alexis announces the release of his sixth and strongest solo album to date, Silence. Partly about silence -- and how we intersect with it, observe it, try to record it, and how we feel about it when it's gone, as we remember it -- the record is also about religion, transcendence, giving oneself over to something bigger than you, or beyond this world. "I'm not religious myself," adds Alexis, "but the songs which deal with the idea of gospel music or religion, look at it from a distance (rather like the shaky hand-held lens through which we follow the action in Pasolini's 'Gospel According To Matthew') and try to uncover its influence on music and on people in desperate circumstances." The genesis behind Silence started a few years ago with Alexis ruminating on silence as a subject and making plans to make a record of the sounds you hear in public spaces as people observe moments of silence. He then lost his own personal access to silence as tinnitus began in his right ear in 2019 at a Hot Chip show. As Alexis explains, "I started to think about what it meant to me to lose quietness, solitude, meditative head space -- as that was no longer available to me." Mostly composed in enforced isolation, Silence is a beautifully rich and unexpected conceptual album that is also Alexis's most accomplished solo record and one that has seen early comparisons with a notably eclectic range of artists including Mark Hollis, George Michael, Big Star, Epic Soundtracks and Maher Shalal Hash Baz. This record sees the first time Alexis has collaborated with Sam Becker (double bass), Kenichi Iwasa (horn, trumpet) and Rachel Horton-Kitchlew (harp), who due to lockdown had to work in isolation from Alexis. In one case Kenichi recorded musical passages which were then superimposed on songs he had never heard -- in effect keeping the songs themselves silent from the playing until the mixes were played to him.
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LP
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TRD 002LP
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"Hot Chip frontman Alexis originally presented these recordings on Treader in 2008 -- his debut solo recording. Finally available on LP, this set of intimately recorded, bespoke songs and instrumentals is dedicated to his partner, Keri Darn. Charming and disarming."
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2LP
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PREECHO 006LP
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Piano: Hot Chip frontman Alexis Taylor pares everything back to just piano and voice for an intimate record of songs, reinterpretations of his own writing, and a selection of favorites, both well-known and unheard, by other artists. Recorded at Hackney Road Studios by Shuta Shinoda, Piano invites the listener to be privy to a very private recital, with Alexis's vocal and piano captured live and up-close, preserving each beautiful moment. Alexis on the release: "I had always wanted to make a loose and to some extent unplanned piano record -- partly inspired by an un-made but suggested Alex Chilton solo piano LP that a friend of mine told me about 15 years ago or so. . . . The idea with this record was to choose songs of my own and others that were personal to me, and to document live performances which were intimate and unadorned. I wanted to reduce everything to the barest elements, record a great piano well and do as little as possible to the recordings EQ or effects-wise."
Listen With(out) Piano: Alexis Taylor's Listen With(out) Piano is a companion album to his 2016 record piano, Piano. Listen With(out) Piano features new versions by artists including Papa M (David Pajo), Green Gartside (Scritti Politti), Spring Heel Jack, Beatrice Dillon, and Brian Degraw (Gang Gang Dance), which can be played on their own, or at the same time as the songs on Piano to create a brand new listening experience. The album features the work of eleven of Alexis's favorite musicians, handpicked to create new tracks and designed to work in response to the songs on Piano, the third solo album by the Hot Chip frontman. "My brief was both very wide open and very specific, and part of the pleasure for me, and now hopefully for the listeners, is to see how everyone responded so differently to the task," Alexis explains. "The results are truly amazing, and here you have a new album that works both as a kind of electro-acoustic ambient companion piece to Piano, and as a series of musical clothes to be put onto the deliberately bare record I released." Also features Lung Dart, Mammalien, Susumu Mukai , Betsy Taylor, Rupert Clervaux, and Jennifer Herrema.
Exclusive artwork by Oliver Payne; Designed by Joe Gilmore. Comes in a gatefold sleeve.
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CD
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TRD 012CD
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Solo album from the singer of Hot Chip! Not necessarily a typical release for Treader, as this is mostly very accessible song-based material -- there's also some more freaked out improv-based stuff. Vocals, guitar, organ, drum machine, etc. Guests include Treader's John Coxon (Spring Heel Jack). Has nothing to do with porn stars or pirates. And, includes a Paul McCartney cover. "Exclusively tailored in places, planes, hotel rooms and at home. Fifteen bespoke songs and instrumentals by Alexis Taylor."
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