Alexis Taylor's extracurricular projects tend to travel far away from his day job in Hot Chip – About Group, say, takes cues from improv jazz. This second Taylor solo outing remains blithely unclassifiable – pop, folk, but mostly none of the above. You'll recognise Taylor's sweet voice on easy-going tracks like Without a Crutch (2) or Am I Not a Soldier?, but Await Barbarians is often beatless and unelectronic, sparse and meditative. One co-write with HC colleague Joe Goddard, Closer to the Elderly, is just a minimal oscillation wedded to Taylor's anxious melody, concerned with your typical indie rave topics: breastfeeding, ageing. Fans with wide-open reference points will fare far better with these instrumental piano sketches and spacious explorations.