James Murphy is a busy boy. One part remix-production guru - tweaking the dials for pop idol Justin Timberlake - and one half of the omnipotent DFA, plus being head of Grammy award winning cult dance-rock-punk-funk outfit LCD Soundsystem, he takes being productive to a new level.

Having risen to stratospheric heights via the release of LCD's debut albumin 2005, James has been doing touring rounds for the past few years before finding some time to catch his breath, get some sleep, and more importantly make his new record. 'Sound of Silver' is the record. A nine tracker of what we know him for best: inspiringly original dance-tastic pop. No Liberscenestercopying here, no new rave madness, just fucking great tunes -the way it should be.

But first things first - how on Earth did Murphy manage to fill this gaping hole that was screaming out for him before the debut, and why hadn't anyone done it sooner? 'You know I think I'm the result of not being happy with stuff. It's to a certain degree how I operate - there has to be a certain sense of necessity, otherwise I don't see the point.'

Maybe this is why Murphy has his fingers in all the pies. 'You can't complain about bands and then not make a band. You know you can't complain about labels without having your own label that tries to operate in a way that you feel is better than the labels you're complaining about. You can't whine about New York and not having any fun without throwing a party. You can't watch a DJ and then roll your eyes and walk out because it sucks without DJing.' Right then! 'So I wind up doing things like - I hate this soundsystem, so I design a soundsystem. But I don't like the speaker boxes so I feel like I have to design the speaker boxes and it just kind of goes in that direction all the time. I just don't join stuff very well.'

Join well he may not, but he sure as hell makes some kick-ass tunes. And 'Sound Of Silver' is jam-packed with beaty-blippy gems. Taking its lead from that ever present debut, James sure hasn't gone down the experimental second album route a la Bloc Party or Radiohead. Oh no. He's taken all the goodness from the first one and expanded on it. So for those of you out there that love LCD as they were, well, this one's going to have you creaming your Y-fronts. If you wear any that is.

'I chose to make it similar because we're not a traditional band as such. It's not like there's a drummer and a couple of guitar players... There's no pressure for it to be anything in particular. So if I wanted to make a record of just organ music, you know I could make a record of organ music.' Thank the Lord he didn't though. Nine tracks of nonsensical dance fused goodness with those ever rough and ready vocals see James do that I'm-kind-of-rappingand-singing-at-the-same-time thing he, and only he, can do so well.

One song in particular seems to catching a lot of attention, and that's before it's even been played: 'North American Scum.' A title like that has sent many a cynical muso tongue wagging both across the Atlantic and UK side. There's the signature tongue-in-cheek lyrics that we love LCD for, plus those partyin-an-instant beats and basslines that'll have booties a jiggling from Berlin to Boston. Yes, really. But what does James think about the reaction? 'I don't know - I thought it was funny and I needed a song that would be good to play live. I really honestly, almost naively, didn't think it would be a big deal at all... It's weird because I'm learning a lot about Americans and learning about what I think, which is a funny weird thing.'

Although the lyrics for this track sarcastically touch on people's muddled and somewhat stereotypical views of Americans, perhaps they weren't so contrived on James' part - all his words for the songs are written on the day of recording. Does he ever get worried that he might forget a lyrical nugget? Not at all: 'I generate a lot of stuff endlessly. There’s a permanent barrage of bullshit kind of spewing around in my head. I've learned not to be particularly precious about, 'What if I forget this song?' And, 'What if I forget that?' Because they constantly come out. So it's just better for me to try to remember it, and if I remember it then there's something memorable, so that seems like a good filter.' Not only a musical genius – he's got a mind of steel too...

What about making the new album? The LCD Soundsystem head honcho muses, 'The first half of making the record was pretty brutal. Psychologically it just wore me down and I kind of wanted to quit. But doing the Nike thing (James created '45:33,' a special 45 minute 33 second track for Nike released through the Nike store for joggers and music fans alike) freed me up because it was such a weird thing to do. After that I was in a really good space and I think I had 35 straight days without a day off on the album, working 14 hours a day. I just cranked through and I felt like really sane. I would leave and go home and see my wife and felt pretty focussed. I didn't leave the studio destroyed - I left kind of rejuvenated. Probably the best period I've ever had in my life.'

Recorded over two US based studios - DFA Studio in Manhattan, New York and Farm Studio in Massachusetts - James finished his pop masterpiece 'Sound of Silver' in November last year. 'I kind of determined and chose and agreed to be a pop band and I'm down with that - that makes me happy. So once that decision was made I thought, 'What do I like about the first record and what do I not like? What do I think the failures are and how do I improve upon the failures without apologising for it?' So I was listening to the first record and I realised I had kind of deviated a lot from the 12 inches and played a little too close to character, and played it safe to a certain degree within that character. I felt like the record as a result had a beige or brown tone to it... It had a kind of Todd Rundgren-y thing about it. I was like, 'OK I don't want it to do that this time, I want it to be more silver!' And that was kind of my obsession.'

'So when we went to the first studio we just brought garbage bags filled with silver fabric - yards and yards of fabric and tin foil and just covered the entire farmhouse studio in silver so it looked like a space ship.' There’s always something in a name. Not only does 'Sound Of Silver' feel like a silver record (or possibly platinum if the high calibre of tracks is anything to go by), it was inspired by the magpie's favourite shiny colour that James saw as his muse.

James continues, 'I got kind of obsessed with this idea of creating a space that could unconsciously remind me of a very complicated idea that a phrase would not. So I'd sit on the couch and look at the ceiling covered in tin foil and wonder about what I should do... I felt like I was really trying to honour the songs and not produce them. I was trying not to be James Murphy and DFA producer - I was trying to be like artist guy. Just writing the song and letting the song stand. That's when I was like - I don't want to do that, it's a waste, I'm a good producer you know. I should push them (the songs) just like I would push any other artist and I felt like that would make the record cohere more as an album, and I think it does.'

It does indeed. From start to finish, 'Sound Of Silver' is an insight into the mind of James Murphy producer and songwriter extraordinaire. The album is splitting at the seams with banging party monster tunes that’ll surely be gracing many a record player over the next few months. But, it's also a sneak into the thoughts of James the poet, the politician and the intellectual. A rarity in an industry that seems to be becoming more and more obsessed with hairstyle over music and rock n roll behaviour rather than melodies. May this be the second of many releases from our musical madman.

TEXT: EMMA EDMONDSON