Andy Stott: "Brief Encounter"

So, you should know what to expect from Andy Stott by now: greatness, particularly the kind that causes slow structural damage to sound systems. He’s been mentioned in dispatches enough times, with plenty of warehouse regulars crowning him the incumbent of dub techno and all its associated offshoots. The Modern Love imprint that looks after him is keen to see its favourite son flourish, and so badman Andy is back for 2009 with a new wodge of killer vinyl, humungous and poised to blow those last remaining doubters out of the water.

Absolutely nothing to do with Noel Coward or affairs in monochrome train stations, “Brief Encounter” continues Stott’s vision of a bombed-out and pulsing inner Britain, perfect to soundtrack the thud of the bankers as numbers grimly slide on. It begins with a misted infinity pad, swirling like the weather in Stott’s own Manchester before those delicate sequencers light up and the midnight fog pours in. Again, it’s hard to describe the scale of the piece without pulling the phrase “we really are producing some truly stunning deep techno at the minute” from the shelf: it’s an opus in downbeat electrics that should double as a make-or-break test-bed for subs. I wonder how many inventors could keep time with Mr. Stott’s prowess on his consoles…not many, I’d have thought, especially given the current tightening of research diplomas to audiophiles. The economic crisis rolls on like an ice age and Modern Love goes from strength to strength to strength.