Alexis Taylor

2023 Stock. The very latest release on the beautifully presented Treader label comes Hot Chip frontman/vocalist and possible Gerry Anderson marionette Alexis Taylor, who threads together a series of instrumentals and pop songs with a little help from Garageband. There are some beautiful synth outings here: from opener 'Fireworks' straight into the creamy, organ-driven 'Plastic Man' which sounds uncannily like the intro to The Killers' 'All These Things That I Have Done' mixed in with a bit of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. Good work. Straight after comes a Paul McCartney cover - 'Coming Up' suits Taylor's voice down to the ground, sounding like its been captured very much in the same sort of spirit as the original, with a lulling double-tracked vocal. Departing markedly from the synth pop impetus that drives Hot Chip, tracks like 'Baby' take on a more guitar-centric tone, rocking in an unstable, ramshackle sort of fashion. This shambling, yet heartfelt lo-fi persona fits Taylor very well, and further oddities like 'Collector's Item' arise from the same sort of setup. There's still a decent enough helping of electronics to hand though, and 'I'm Not A Robber' serves as a good example of Taylor's pared down, organ-toting electro-funk. As if that weren't enough there's even a bit of drone work in here too ('Musical Food'). Lovely.