Maximo Park frontman Paul Smith has promised that the band's third album will be more “stripped down” than its predecessors.

The band are currently working on the as-yet-untitled project in Los Angeles with former Talking Heads producer Nick Launay.

Smith said the band were changing direction on the album, due out next Spring, because “we don't like to repeat ourselves.”

He added: "Our producer Nick thinks it's a dance record, and who are we to disagree?

"Don't be alarmed though, we won't be donning face masks and Gore-Tex like Altern 8, or dancing like electric monkeys. Apart from Lukas [Wooller, the band's keyboardist]."

Maximo Park's last studio album, 'Our Earthly Pleasures', was released in 2007.

(by Jason Gregory)