Hot Chip man releases solo album

Alexis Taylor wearing some eccentric stage gear at Glastonbury Festival

Hot Chip frontman Alexis Taylor has released a surprise solo album.

Rubbed Out, the frontman's first album outside Hot Chip, was "exclusively tailored in places, planes, hotel rooms and at home," according to a statement.

Copies of the album are available to buy online now, although it is likely to hit the shops before Christmas.

Meanwhile, Taylor's usual band are set to begin their UK tour at Southampton Guildhall on 23 September before travelling around the rest of the UK.

'Visions of songs'

The album features "12 bespoke songs and instrumentals", comprising "rough ideas, snapshots and visions of songs".

It's being released by record label Treader, an avant-garde jazz label set up by Spiritualized's John Coxon.

The group were nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2006

Rubbed Out doesn't yet have a strict release date, but it is expected to make it into shops by the middle of November.

As well as setting out on their UK tour, which climaxes with two nights at London's Brixton Academy on 6 and 7 November, Hot Chip have recently contributed to a novel compilation.

The band have remixed the music of a south American tribe, the Babongo, for Bruce Parry's album 'Amazon/Tribe - Songs For Survival'.

The album, which also features songs from the BBC series, includes tracks by KT Tunstall, Razorlight's Johnny Borrell and Will.I.Am.