The artsy post-punkers gone club-music obsessed album-release machines of Bloc Party seem to be on a break, or at least that’s what drummer Matt Tong suggested some months ago. And then there was the slip of the tongue from producer Hudson Mohawk, who said he’d been working on a project for Kele that possibly included someone from Spank Rock’s crew. Kele’s come out of the closet with some details on his solo debut record. He blogged (via Kele’s Twitter):

hello boys and girls. i have finished my record, it is called The Boxer and it will be coming out on witchita/polydor on june 21st. there will be a single called tenderoni out on june the 14th. ive been keeping this secret close to my heart for a while now but i am excited to finally share this with you all. this record is like nothing ive ever done before and i hope all of you will love it as much as i do. see you in the summer. kele

Kele’s had time to make a solo record and make good use of that gym membership. Very efficient. Via P4K, we know XXXChange has teamed up with Okereke for an album which Kele’s further described thusly: “The key for the sound of the record was to take things as harsh and as physical as I could make it. The reason for going there was that these are the sounds that make me the happiest in the world.”

The first single’s called “Tenderoni” (probably not a Chromeo cover), out 6/14, while The Boxer (probably not a Simon & Garfunkel reference) is due 6/21 in the UK and 6/22 in the US via Wichita/Polydor (and Glassnote in in the Americas, Southeast Asia and South Africa). Here’s a tracklist:

01 “Walk Tall”
02 “On The Lam”
03 “Tenderoni”
04 “The Other Side”
05 “Everything You Wanted”
06 “New Rules”
07 “Unholy Thoughts”
08 “Rise”
09 “All The Things I Could Never Say”
10 “Yesterday’s Gone”

And about that “see you in the summer,” here’s the first batch of Kele solo tour dates:

05/14 Limerick, Ireland @ Dolans
05/15 Cork, Ireland @ Cyprus Avenue
05/16 Dublin, Ireland @ The Academy
05/17 Belfast, Northern Ireland @ Spring and Airbrake
05/20 Cologne, Germany @ E-Werk (Electronic Beats)
05/21 Hamburg, Germany @ Prinzenbarhalle
05/22 Berlin, Germany @ Weekend Club
06/12 Manchester, England @ Warehouse Project Fest
07/16 Ferropolis, Germany (Melt Festival)
08/27 Paris, France @ Rock En Seine
08/28 Leeds, England (Leeds Festival)
08/29 Reading, England (Reading Festival)
08/31 Ibiza, Spain (Ibiza Rocks)