Alexis Taylor – “House Of The Truth”Alexis Taylor – “House Of The Truth”

Hot Chip are still plenty active. Last year, the great UK synthpop act released a Late Nite Tales mix and teamed up with Jarvis Cocker on their single “Straight To The Morning.” But this year, the guys in the band are off doing other things, too. Joe Goddard, for instance, recently formed Hard Feelings, a new duo with the New York singer Amy Douglas, and they’ll release their debut album this fall. Meanwhile, Alexis Taylor is preparing to release his new solo album Silence, and we’ve already posted his single “Dying In Heaven.” Today, he’s shared another one.

Taylor’s solo records tend to stray away from Hot Chip’s dancey blueprint and into the mellow, jazz-inflected prog of artists like Robert Wyatt, and that’s definitely the zone that Taylor’s in on the new song “House Of The Truth.” The song is built on soft pianos and subtle horns, and it features Taylor’s voice at its most quietly soulful.

In a press release, Taylor says that “House Of The Truth” started out as a Moodymann-influenced Hot Chip song but that it just never worked for the group:

I returned to it in solo gigs, stripping it back to just piano and a drum machine. Having struggled to find the right direction for something I really loved, and which fans always asked me about, eventually I settled on this slowly evolving groove which builds with dramatic tension to a crescendo over its four minutes. It felt like I had finally discovered the gospel song that was hidden away inside the multiple original versions of the song.

In director Simon Owens‘ video, Taylor, dressed as a brick wall, slowly climbs a giant rope, a visual depiction of an endless struggle without a clear goal. Check it out below.

Silence is out 9/17 on AWAL.