About Group Will Be Between The Walls

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About Group1 photo credit Ben Stockley 2013 Lo res

About Group – the quartet of John Coxon, Charles Hayward, Alexis Taylor and Pat Thomas – have announced details of Between The Walls. Their third album will be released through Domino on July 1st.

Between The Walls captures the sound of a band ‘playing’ together, in both senses of the word – experimenting and trying things, being playful, as much as being a group performing as a unit together. Between The Walls is the sound of people pushing towards and pulling against one another simultaneously. It is the sound of buzzing amplifiers, sudden musical non-sequiturs, loud blasts of straight synth lines cutting through melody and structure. And it is also the sound of beautiful and odd electronic textures and brilliantly defined and deliberate drums, underpinning fragile but deliberate performances of sad songs and country ballads. ‘The balance between songwriting and free playing, and a lack of clarity about which mode we will be in for any given amount of time, is the key to About Group.’ Alexis Taylor

Between The Walls will be available on CD, LP, download and on special edition 2 x CD, featuring a bonus disc with DJ loops which will be available through Dom mart and indie stores only. Pre-order the album HERE. Download album track, Walk On By, HERE.

The album features:

1 After Video
2 Walk On By
3 All Is Not Lost
4 Words
5 Graph Paper
6 Make The World Laugh
7 Love Because
8 Nightlife/Sinking
9 Untitled
10 I Never Lock That Door
11 Yes
12 If You Can’t Love Me

About Group are Charles Hayward (This Heat, Camberwell Now), John Coxon (Spring Heel Jack, Spiritualized)
Pat Thomas (played with Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley) and Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip).

Alexis Plays Charity DJ Gig

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Alexis and friends will be spinning records in aid of Childhood First on Saturday 16th March at Life Bar (2-4 Old Street, London, EC1). DJing with Alexis on the night will be John Coxon (About Group, Spring Heeled Jack), Green Gartside (Scritti Politti), Susumu Mukai (Zongamin) and Guy Bolongaro – all for a great cause and, to add to that, there’s the possibly of a surprise live performance from a very special guest.

Alexis Announces New Projects – UPDATED

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Never one to rest for too long, Alexis Taylor has been keeping himself busy with two new projects.

Firstly, Alexis sings on a Hot Chip produced track on the new Fimber Bravo album – you can hear it here. He plays a couple of dates as part of Fimber Bravo’s live band before heading out to the States for Hot Chip dates:

8th March: Heaven (supporting Jamie Lidell)
19th March: The Barfly (XFM X-posure Night where Alexis also supports)
5th May: Land of Kings Festival, Hackney
18th May: The Great Escape Festival, Brighton
21st July: Latitude Festival

You can hear Fimber Bravo and Alexis on Radio 4′s Loose Ends this week – we’ll post an iPlayer link after broadcast.

Secondly, Alexis announces a single release as one half of Fainting by Numbers – a collaboration with German techno producer Justus Köhncke. They release a double a-side single ‘Watching the Wheels’/'A Stone in the Ground’ on April 15th (like the Fimber Bravo LP, this is also released on Moshi Moshi). Pitchfork described the single as “the perfect balance of longing and regret” – you can hear A Stone in the Ground here.

Nayim From The Halfway Line UPDATED

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Alexis Taylor has released a solo EP. Nayim from the Halfway Line is described as “A real Terry Riley disco for the most discerning of listeners.” Check out a short teaser for the EP below.

Click here for more information (via Domino).

UPDATE – Alexis’ solo EP is single of the week in French music bible Les Inrocks (using the Google translate button, we got this description that we loved: “…where toy robots have taken over where Prince slips into a vintage Mac, where IRCAM plays foosball against pop music“). Alexis was interviewed about the record for This is Fake DIY – read the piece here.

B & O news, gigs…

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Hello. Alexis here. I am making music with my friend and hot chip drummer Grovesnor, and together we are B & O. We opened for Scritti Politti in December last year, and Gang Gang Dance and the Junior Boys in Paris also. Now we are proud to play a handful of shows with New Build, and also one with The 2 Bears as well. Below is a link to a video Brian Degraw shot of us soundchecking, plus an excerpt from our upcoming release, a cover of Sparkle featuring R. Kelly – Be Careful. You can Bear this in mind so you can Newly Build a picture of what you might see and hear; Beovision if you will.
The dates and info for the New Build shows that we will also play at is right here:
Weds 7th  Leeds Cockpit 2
Thur 8th   Manchester, Deaf Institute
Fri 9th       London, Corsica Studios (with The 2 Bears and more)
Hope to see you at the shows, bright and early, by the speakers. They’re Danish.

Alexis plays four gigs with Justus Köhncke

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Justus Köhncke and Alexis Taylor are playing a quartet of European dates together in February and March. The pair first collaborated together on the song Sorry, a vocal re-working by Alexis of Justus’s classic Parage, performed live together in Germany on the Hot Chip One Life Stand tour, and later released on the Kitsuné Maison Compilation 10: The Fireworks Issue.

“Sing-jaying together at these 4 upcoming dates in Germany, Denmark and Norway, they perform originals and unique cover versions, and spin house and techno, disco and garage discs. The modern day John and Harry welcome you on their future lost weekends.”

The dates and ticket links are in the live section.