ALEXIS TAYLOR - Rubbed Out

With label founders John Coxon and Ashley Wales initially working together as Spring Heel Jack, a project first tied to IDM, post-rock and drum'n'bass which later took in ever-more nebulous influence from free-improv and jazz, Treader's mark has always been indefinable. Many of its standout releases have been by top-tier names branching out and stretching their scope, from Matthew Shipp and Evan Parker to J Spaceman's blissed-out, clanging Guitar Loops, and here Hot Chip frontman Alexis Taylor fits together such at-odds elements as analog-synth aleatory and church-hymn melody, with standoffish opener "Fireworks" popping up as mid-album sentimental blip "O Lord". Keyboard-based ditties like "Plastic Man" are interspersed with no-frills soul and calypso-coloured guitar shambles "Baby" and "Girl" (and McCartney cover "Coming Up" fits like a glove), adding up to an end-of-year charmer that's maybe the strongest (and certainly the most surprising) album yet from the Hot Chip camp.