Andy Stott has progressed from making high-quality dub techno to exploring singular and more adventurous strains integrating hardcore techno, post-punk, and dream pop -- among other inspirations -- that have evoked feelings ranging from dread to exhilaration. A few years after he made his full-length debut with
Merciless (2006),
Stott took a sharp left turn with
Passed Me By and
We Stay Together (both 2011), grinding mini-albums descriptively (if humorously) termed as "knackered house." That creative breakthrough has helped fuel the British producer's distinctive subsequent albums, from the definitive
Luxury Problems (2012) to
Never the Right Time (2021), all of which have mixed the atmospheric vocals of
Alison Skidmore with a host of sampled and processed voices.
Stott has also recorded under the name Andrea and has collaborated under the guises of
Millie & Andrea and Hate.
Originally from Oldham,
Stott has been based elsewhere around and within Manchester, home to Modern Love, the outlet for all of his original productions. Too young to have experienced rave culture firsthand, he was nonetheless a voracious listener, and in school started playing keyboards, mimicking the sounds he heard on hardcore tapes. In his early teens, at the suggestion of piano teacher
Alison Skidmore,
Stott ceased formal music training to pursue sound design, starting with studio emulator Reason. In his early twenties, having fallen in with the Modern Love label and its artists,
Stott made his 12" debut with 2005's Replace EP, and by the end of that year, he released two additional EPs. His first album,
Merciless, arrived in 2006. Numerous EPs were issued through 2008, the year
Stott also released
Unknown Exception, a selection of previously 12"-only tracks dating back to Replace. Another handful of EPs followed through 2010, but
Stott was more prolific during this period as Andrea, one-half of
Millie & Andrea (with
Demdike Stare's
Miles Whittaker), and one-third of Hate (with
Whittaker and Gary Howell, aka
G.H.).
Stott made a significant creative advance in 2011 with
Passed Me By and
We Stay Together, a pair of creep-outs rooted in sludgy, unsettling rhythms and smudged samples. The mini-albums were combined and expanded for double-CD release around the time Wire magazine listed
We Stay Together on its year-end Top 50. Whereas many producers renounce sampling to use all-original instrumentation with the intent to further distinguish themselves,
Stott had taken the less common approach, and in turn created his most individual music to that point. As he continued to mix played, programmed, and sampled elements,
Stott sought
Alison Skidmore as a recording collaborator. The opera-trained vocalist added another layer to
Stott's sound on the 2012 album
Luxury Problems, another year-end Wire favorite and
Stott's first release to register on Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart in the U.S.
Stott then deviated with
Miles Whittaker to release the
Millie & Andrea LP
Drop the Vowels in early 2014. He returned toward the end of the year with
Faith in Strangers, containing some of his harshest and gentlest material, with
Skidmore's voice more prominent than before. Two more albums were out by the end of the 2010s. For
Too Many Voices, a 2016 release combining some of his most physical rhythms with crystalline keyboard melodies,
Stott cited grime mixtapes and
David Sylvian and
Ryuichi Sakamoto's 1982 avant-pop collaboration as inspirations. Closing out the decade was It Should Be Us, a double EP with a greater emphasis on club-oriented tracks. By that point,
Stott's impressive remix discography included tracks by
Vladislav Delay,
Tricky,
Martin Gore, and
Sakamoto.
It Should Be Us was surprise-released with the promise of an album due in 2020, but a disruption in
Stott's life put a follow-up on hold. After a phase of inactivity,
Stott felt reinvigorated and finished
Never the Right Time before the end of that year. The album, lighter in touch than
Stott's previous LPs, yet just as full of emotion, arrived in 2021. ~ Andy Kellman