Maybe you don't much like Hot Chip anymore. You think the singer's got one of those slightly syrupy, bleaty voices that meant the mildly understandable but ultimately exaggerated love of indie clubs for 2006's 'Over And Over' sent you to asphyxiation. Well, get this: the five of them just expelled something that'll make the haterz and indifferents (I was one of the latter) crumble.

Where last album The Warning was a half-submerged dream of somnambulic gloop and mixed-signalled comedowns, Made In The Dark is an upper, and whether you interpret these tracks as bright'n' sparkling or strung out, as natural or artificial highs, they're certainly more explorative and whole than anything from their two prior records. But let's stop making fatigued analogies to narcotics, and delve into the mind of Alexis Taylor...

Did you have a very specific vision for this record when you began work on it, or was its growth a more indistinct process?

We wanted it to sound varied, not just in terms of the songs and their moods but also the acoustic qualities of the record - so parts of it are recorded live on stage, other bits it in Joe's bedroom, parts at a 'professional' recording studio etc etc.

This to me was an affectionate homage to records like Dylan's Self Portrait, Prince's Sign O the Times and Neil Michael Hagerty's The Howling Hex; records where the artists throw everything at the wall, and see what sticks.

Were there any approaches, ideas or textures that you consciously transferred across from The Warning to this record? Equally, was there anything you left behind?

We just try to make records which are as distinct from the last one as possible, and which are an improvement on what we have just done. This record feels more ambitious in its scope; the song writing more subtle, the music more adventurous.

With each step forward I notice the previous record’s naivety, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I think this record somehow feels the most exciting to me because we put the emphasis on being 'in the dark'; that is as unconscious and unknowing as we could be about what to do next. Everything from fairly lo-fi home demo-y sounding songs, to big expansive stupid rockers seemed to be ok to us.

What sort of feelings do you hope Made In The Dark generates in the listener? How would you describe its textures and its intentions?

I hope it makes people feel something - but I don't have specific feelings in mind. If anything I always want music to surprise me or make me dance with joy.

What were the most unusual or inventive ways of creating sound you experimented with/used in the making of this record?

Recording in complete darkness meant we couldn't tell which EQs or faders we were turning up or down, so that made for quite unique results. Also I couldn't always tell if anyone was still in the room with me or if they had left to go to the pub.

What was the most enjoyable aspect of the creative process, this time around?

Singing about Willie Nelson, Nick Forgacs, James Murphy, Jim Dickinson and Summerslam all in one song.