Andy Stott is a British electronic musician and producer, living in Manchester.[1]
Biography
Stott's debut album was Merciless[2] in 2006, followed by Unknown Exception in 2008. The EP Passed Me By (2011) marked a significant change in his sound; it has none of the elements of his previous dub techno release, opting for a much more bass-heavy sound.[3] The album Luxury Problems was released in 2012.[4]Luxury Problems received top album awards from both Resident Advisor[5] and Pitchfork.[6]
Stott has undertaken several productions under the moniker Andrea and these works were released on Daphne, a sublabel of Modern Love.[7] Most of this work is in association with MLZ / Pendle Coven's Miles Whittaker who used the moniker Millie in the recordings[8] and were released as Millie & Andrea. In 2012, Stott collaborated with the Brooklyn duo The Hundred in the Hands remixing Keep It Low[9][10] from their 2012 album, Red Night.[11] In March 2014, Millie & Andrea released Drop the Vowels.[12]
Artistry
Stott analogises making music to a scientist creating compounds, by figuring out formulas that use studio gadgets and parts of other music.[13] He never borrows inspiration from his personal experiences when he produces material.[13] As Zach Sokol explained when he interviewed Stott in 2016, "his music draws from where he's at creatively, functioning as a reflection of whatever curiosity is currently making the gears in his head churn."[13] When creating albums, he also tries to make each track have a very different aesthetic by using a variety of equipment and musical influences.[13] As he explained, "I go to the studio and I don't mess around, but at the same time, I don't really know what's going to come out."[13] Modern Love boss Shlom Sviri also contributes suggestions and ideas to Stott when he creates tracks and sequences the order of songs on his LPs.[13]
All of Stott's work touches on many types of experimental styles and genre.[14][15]Tiny Mix Tapes writer Birkut analysed Stott's works employ neo-futuristic themes and are hard to label in specific genres because they are "shifting disfiguration of Detroit techno, grime, house, and industrial music."[16] Stott's music contains a melodic structure that has been compared by multiple critics to Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance.[14] A trademark element in his works is the use of rhythms that are slightly off beat, which often gives the tracks a feeling of anxiety.[14]
Since Luxury Problems, vocals from Stott's former piano teacher Alison Skidmore appear on his music,[17] and numerous pieces about Stott's second, third and fourth studio albums highlighted, as well as praised, the interplay between the menacing instrumentals and the light tones of Skidmore's singing.[3][15][18][19] The vocals have a bright pop tinge[14] and an ethereal tone that contradict the otherwise sinister vibe of the instrumentals.[17] As Stott discussed creating Luxury Problems, "when it was suggested that I use a vocalist, I was worried that it would sound different to the normal way that I write tunes, but when I heard that bass coming from the speakers, that visceral bass, I knew that I still wanted that undertone as a counterpoint to her vocals."[17]
An Electronic Beats review of Luxury Problems described its sounds as presenting "the beautifully decayed aura of concrete and chrome, halogen and grime—the soul of a heaving, monstrous city at twilight, equal (yet often struggling) parts fragile light and enclosing darkness."[18] Writing a PopMatters article about Too Many Voices, Alex Franquelli wrote that "patches of comfort" are included for the "sole purpose of creating an imbalance that makes the darker elements stand out and shine in all their misty glare."[19] Reed Scott Reid's review of Luxury Problems for Tiny Mix Tapes analyse it "represents an apogee of scruffy elegance, curdled rhythms growling within the crumbling masonry of its bitworn shunt."[20] He wrote the vocals "dimly illuminate a pervasive auroral gloom, shafts of ecru and dun mottled with putrescent tinctures; a mournful, angelic presence – a long-deceased sacristan, perhaps – bleeding through the aether as faint drumsteps crack gravel."[20]
Personal life
Stott is married, and has a son who was born in August 2012.[21]
