Passed Me By

Produced slowly and meticulously over the last 12
months, these seven tracks are the closet thing we've
had to a new album from Andy Stott since the release
of his debut full-length Merciless five years ago.
Taking influence from an array of seemingly incoherent
noises, from the indefinable and unforgettable mindtricks
of Arthur Russell to the slowhouse of Kassem
Mosse, from the alternate VHS realities of James
Ferraro and Jamal Moss to the Linn Drum classics of the
vintage Prince era - these seven tracks create their own
pace and agenda, largely shying away from the
dancefloor in favour of something more complex and
hard to define.
Following on from the tribal malfunctions of opening
intro Signature, New Ground heads into a chasm of
layered loops, creating a decimated and re-wired funk
template coloured in with frayed percussion and
dislodged vocal samples. North To South starts off from
similar ground but adds a shuffling vibe at a deceptively
intoxicated 110 bpm.
Intermittent is something altogether different, taking
perfectly formed Boogie templates and screwing with
them until nothing quite fits, brittle elements floating in
and out of time yet somehow keeping it together,
before Dark Details delivers the most dancefloor
compatible six minute stretch of the set, all clanging
stabs and dense percussion, somewhere between
Shackleton and Bam Bam.
Execution and Passed Me By end things off on a slowed
down tip, the former deploying an anaesthetised and
padded 4/4 template sunk deeper into the abyss by
deformed, time-stretched vocals, the latter ending off
proceedings with a more delicate palette, letting go of
all that pent-up emotion with nothing but that rumbling
low-end and some strings for company.