Manchester-based producer Andy Stott has been busy over the last year, releasing two lengthy EPs that have recently been brought together for a double-CD package courtesy of Modern Love. Passed Me By and We Stay Together are the two EPs making up the release, both exemplary of Stott's ambiguous style which never permits itself to fit any particular definition. While there is an underlying darkness to Stott's work here (as with the majority of the releases on Modern Love), many of the tracks on both EPs are notably dance-floor influenced when compared with more abstract Modern Love artists (see Miles, Demdike Stare) but Stott still finds himself far from the traps of traditional 4/4 techno.
Passed Me By (album art pictured above) is arguably the more 'direct' of the two releases–"New Ground" even holds some soulful female vocal samples that carry it through the heaviness of Stott's over-driven but still soothing sound.
The pads and samples of "Intermittent" see the most melodically pleasing side of Passed Me By, but the temporary uplift gives way to the dub-influences of "Dark Details" which is driven by deep pulses of bass and clicks more characteristic of true U.K. dub (as is the case with "Execution").
We Stay Together sees Stott favouring a less-polished (if one could even consider Passed Me By as such) sound, layering pulses of messy, over-driven samples on one another creating massive grooves of chugging lo-fi rhythms. The muddy samples of "Posers" allude to something "sexy"–both in a literal auditory sense and as a reference to a dark sort of beauty Stott is able to evoke despite the outward originality of his sound. "Bad Wires" could sub in as an avant-garde hip hop production, delivering a slower tempo'ed groove accented by carefully placed stabs of minimalist melody–Modern Love is continuing it's rise to the top of the global electronic world.
You can buy Passed Me By / We Stay Together at the following online retailers:
Email: philipdevries@earmilk.com
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