10. Agnès presents Cavalier, A Million Horses
[Drumpoet Community] (buy)

It wasn’t until this year that Agnès, partially under the guise of Cavalier, laid out his blueprint for an ideal house on a canvas bigger than an EP. In many ways A Million Horses lives up to the Swiss producer’s great potential, offering his refined take on more than a dozen facets of house. They arrived in an array of sizes — some only as baubles, others as full-on Jesus pieces — each bearing his Swiss precision hi-hat programming, attention-grabbing bass lines, and subtle melodies that stand up to close scrutiny and club play. The tracks really move, too, putting all their weight into swinging rhythms or playing it deliberately straight, but always with a grace that feels instinctual instead of studied. Rather than trying to turn house on its head, it was obvious Agnès preferred to work with the same forms as his peers and just did a superior job within those parameters. Although at times uneven, A Million Horses repeatedly proved Agnès is one of house music’s most talented craftsmen whose low-profile toiling paid off even in the tricky album format. (Steve Mizek)

09. Steffi, Yours & Mine
[Ostgut Ton] (buy)

With just six tracks to her name at the start of the year, no one knew much at all about Steffi. Setting aside her lauded DJ sets, that is. Nevertheless, with the release of Yours & Mine, it became clear the Dutch artist had been doing much more than just collecting records. For a debut album (hell, any album) it was technically impeccable, delivering stomach-dwelling bass and radiant synth work with equal clarity. One thing it didn’t do was break the mold compositionally, nor offer incredible variation. That didn’t matter: in distilling deep house down to such reliable elements, Steffi created a long player that was exceptionally dependable, wherever you dived in. There was the innocent dreaminess of “Lilo,” the relentless pulse of “Nightspacer” and of course, “Yours,” the track that lodged Virginia’s imploring vocals deep into everyone’s brains. Who wants to race to the end of the pool when treading water is this pleasant? (Nick Connellan)

08. Legowelt, The TEAC Life
[Self-Released] (buy)

A sprawling 14 tracks which often come close to the 10-minute mark, The TEAC Life was Danny Wolfers’ most engrossing album yet. Released as a free download, he memorably described it as “raw as fuck Detroit unicorn futurism made on cheap ass analog and digital crap synthesizers recorded in a ragtag bedroom studio.” Raw it may have been, but it was also a powerfully emotive listen, navigating the completely idiosyncratic landscape he’s been building up for over a decade. Tracks like “U Can Fly Away from the Hood” and “The Soul of a City” summed up everything that was great about this LP — layer on layer of colorful synth swirls grounded by warm and rounded drum machine funk. But while the obvious influences, both musical and cultural, are writ large, The TEAC Life never sounded contrived — or, worse, twee. Rather, the dual engines of vintage house and electro were twisted further and further away from the club, and into areas that speak of space navigation, lo-fi futurism, and innocent escapism: a real trip, from one of the great journeyman of electronic music. (Harry Sword)

07. Tim Hecker, Ravedeath, 1972
[Kranky] (buy)

Physicality is something that draws many to dance music, but Ravedeath, 1972 isn’t body music in the same sense as everything else you’ll find on this list. Tim Hecker’s finest hour (not to mention 2011′s best ambient record) does’t set your body in motion so much as it moves you — physically, sure, but its vibrations penetrate deeper, rattling obscure organs and dredging up emotions you maybe weren’t sure you had. While the effect isn’t unheard of in Hecker’s music, some credit must go to Ben Frost, the Australian composer and master of harsh beauty who engineered the sessions in Reykjavik where these almost painfully lush sounds originate. Though it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with any beatless, experimental, or modern classical record you could get your hands on this year, Ravedeath struck a chord with many who might not normally know what to do with this sort of stuff. Perhaps its structure, moving from the bitterness of the “In the Fog” through to the blurry, gossamer sensuality of “In the Air,” helped this abstract music become as seemingly universal as a four-to-the-floor kickdrum. Or maybe it’s just that the album actually delivers on its cover (which is pure class, by the way): you feel like that nearly-alighted piano has slammed straight into your chest, a collision sure to cause more than a bit of internal bleeding.
(Jordan Rothlein)

06. Roman Flügel, Fatty Folders
[Dial] (buy)

It’s hard to believe Fatty Folders was the very first solo album to bear Roman Flügel’s birth name. After all, he’s been releasing music with his real title since the late 90s. In that respect, the LP’s appearance may have been more of a surprise than its actual contents. Besides featuring previously released tracks “How To Spread Lies” and “Bahia Blues Bootcamp,” Folders continued the steady course Flügel has been plotting for several years, rather than swerving to an unfamiliar vector. As always, however, there was no one on the path but him. Armed with his customary confidence and poise, the Frankfurt-based producer delivered neon-lit electro-funk with “Deo,” idyllic synth noodling via “Krautus” and a touching elegy in “Song With Blue.” It was an album of carefully spread variation, though wherever it went, Flügel’s hand was always audible. And perhaps that’s the simple reason why Fatty Folders was so popular. In one big hit, it delivered more of the celebrated producer than anyone has heard in half a decade.
(Nick Connellan)

05. Jonsson/Alter, Mod
[Kontra-Musik] (buy)

Every once in a while a friend or acquaintance asks me to recommend an album of exemplary house music which they, the uninitiated, might enjoy. Since Jonsson/Alter’s LP Mod landed in October it’s been my go-to recommendation, one that’s been met with more than a few approving head nods and foot taps from said recipients. My reasons for recommending it are the same reasons it’s been so well received: the duo exhibit an absolute mastery of house music’s fundamentals and have excised anything that might detract from them. Listeners get the sense every synth tone and timbre has been labored over for just as long as it took to arrange them into a track, yielding sumptuous melodies that ricochet around the brain for weeks. Their work is obviously indebted to classic house and yet makes no attempts to reanimate the past, preferring to belong to the canon of classic house records because of its quality. And like all the best dance albums, Mod cultivates a series of moods and feelings that justify its existence rather than relying on utilitarian notions to get by. Put succinctly, Mod offered everything I wanted in a house album. Given its inclusion in this list, I suspect I’m not alone in this conclusion. (Anton Kipfel)

04. Morphosis, What Have We Learned
[Morphine Records/Delsin/M>O>S Recordings] (buy)

Rabih Beaini’s daring and unconventional approach to his album, What Have We Learned, ended with equally audacious results. Using a limited amount of equipment and taking a live jam approach that extended over just two days, he was able to create a work immersed in an exotic atmosphere that is equal parts eerie and thrilling. His penchant for jazz shows itself in many ways, most notably on the abstract side during “Silent Screamer,” “Ascension,” and again with “Gate Of Night” as cosmic synths swirl and xylophonic percussion envelop the listener. Elsewhere jazz tonalities are felt within the melodic strains or within the loose drum programming and spontaneous percussive fills. On “Too Far” we see Beaini combining those jazz idioms with Middle Eastern motifs, an ominous bass line and haunting lyrics from vocalist Kae to create something truly unique. With “Spiral” and “Dirty Matter” Beaini offers up chugging percussive techno that has a primitive, hypnotic quality that is richly textured. That What We Have Learned is considered techno is almost beside the point, as Beaini has masterfully achieved a cohesive atmosphere that seems to transcend the album’s individual components. It’s as if he’s created a mythical sonic world where anything goes and usually does. (Kuri Kondrak)

03. BNMJMN, Plastic World
[Rush Hour Recordings] (buy)

It’s impossible to know now if BNJMN would have broken as large as he did if he hadn’t have released his debut on Rush Hour. The most on-point label in the world was the perfect fit for the producer who also turned out to be one of the most compelling finds of 2011 with not just one but two incredible albums. His first, Plastic World, was his introduction; the densely packed, rich rhythms finding a home in ears appreciative of the meeting points between techno and bass music that have been so prevalent this year. In places the pure strains of Dutch and Detroit techno were plastered all over the tracks, such as on the celestial opener, “Blocks,” or the deeply grooving “Tunnel Flight.” Elsewhere, like on “See Thru Stars” or “Miniature Steps” the influence of UK bass music is clearly felt. But Plastic World was much more than simply being a derivative strain of these popular trends. Its force lay in both its sonic architecture and the unique take that the producer had on the ideas contained therein. In the first instance BNJMN intensifying and heightening the frequencies contained in his tracks to the maximum, and in the latter being able to fully realize his ideas and shape them how he saw them, making Plastic World sound unlike anything else that came out this year. (Per Bojsen-Moller)

02. Andy Stott, Passed Me By
[Modern Love] (buy)

Although Andy Stott experimented with dropped tempos on last year’s Tell Me Anything, this spring’s Passed Me By drastically redefined his career, squashing and dragging his shimmering dub techno to a lurching, lethargic pace. Often a slight drop will add a bit of sex to a rigid rhythm, or as Jochem Peteri says, the “simply dissolves in a more beautiful way.” But on Passed Me By (and its companion, We Stay Together), Stott took his tracks a step further. Any slinkiness is smothered in unrelenting bass weight, creaky industrial ambience, and claustrophobic side-chain compression. The recent trend for slowness — not only in music, but also in movements like slow food — has been widely attributed to the rapidly increasing speed of media and communications, as its proponents attempt to exert some control over their environment. Passed Me By seems much more about being trapped under the weight of that information flow, and its solemn trudge is frequently punctuated by sharp cries ringing out into the graininess, skewed beyond intelligibility. It’s this pervasive unease that makes it such an intoxicating, relevant effort. (Steve Kerr)

01. Machinedrum, Room(s)
[Planet Mu] (buy)

It might have been the tapping of fingers, closely clipped samples, or some nameless drummer going nuts on the kit, but if there’s one sound that defined the year’s best album, it’s percussion. A complete and utter reinvention, Travis Stewart’s nth album as Machinedrum splashed intricate percussive tracks across all sorts of landscapes, beats that click, clack, and bang at incredibly high tempos, speeding ahead of everyone else in “bass music” in 2011 both literally and artistically. While there was no shortage of footwork influence seeping into dance music — especially that made on American shores — Stewart takes what was fast becoming a cliche and flies off with it in a direction that I don’t think anyone could have predicted or even really imagined. Recognizing the music’s compatibility with jungle, with Room(s) Stewart crafts an eminently futurist album that tears and twists bits of footwork — its thrill-seeker pace, its dislocated bass frequency dread politics, and its penchant for hypnotic repetition — and weds it with the uniquely flighty feel of jungle, music that feels like it’s hurtling joyously and unapologetically in any direction it could fling itself toward.

What makes Room(s) so much more than “footwork for white people” is its expansive sonic makeup: while there’s a definite formula here, each does it with completely different sets of ingredients. Forgoing footwork’s roughly hewn, sawed-off vocal aesthetic, every vocal on Room(s) — a mixture of Stewart’s own cooing and the usual array of disembodied sample — sounds shimmering and iridescent, touched just slightly with AutoTune and other processing effects. Its near-convoluted percussive patterns range from soft (“She Died There”) to lusciously tactile (“Youniverse”) to just plain drummer’s abandon (“U Don’t Survive”), and even throws in a few tender moments, like the tender “Lay Me Down,” a slow jam at 150 beats per minute, making the most of the Burial recipe of mallets, makeshift drums, and strangled yelps. The album’s unrelenting breakneck speed might scare off prospective listeners, but even at its most frenzied the elements congeal into something attractively psychedelic and sonically adventurous (the piano-house-on-speed of “Come1″ or the Boards of Canada-sampling “Sacred Frequency”) rather than a deafening jackhammer.

Far be it for me to go all “consensus rules,” but maybe the biggest indicator that there was something special happening here was how music like this — music that takes the most extreme elements of “bass music” in terms of sampling, speed, and structure — managed to unite sticklers and scenesters from all over the dance music map. Sometimes critical acclaim really does line up with greatness, and Machinedrum’s Room(s) deserves no less than the uproarious reception it received: there was no other album this year more adventurous, confident, perfectly executed or so damned exciting every single play through. There was no album either as giddily celebratory or celebrated as Room(s) in 2011, he owned this spot since bits and pieces of his masterpiece started trickling earlier out this spring. (Andrew Ryce)

++

Staff Charts:

Per Bojsen-Moller
01. BNJMN, Plastic World [Rush Hour Direct Current]
02. Machinedrum, Room(s) [Planet Mu]
03. Rick Wilhite, Analog Aquarium [Music 4 Your Legs]
04. Andy Stott, Passed Me By [Modern Love]
05. Martyn, Ghost People [Brainfeeder]
06. Legowelt, The TEAC Life [Legowelt]
07. James Blake, James Blake [Atlas Recordings]
08. When Saints Go Machine, Konkylie [Studio !K7]
09. Jonsson/Alter, Mod [Kontra-Musik]
10. DJ Qu, Gymnastics [Strength Music Recordings]

Nick Connellan
01. Roman Flügel, Fatty Folders [Dial]
02. Steffi, Yours & Mine [Ostgut Ton]
03. Morphosis, What Have We Learned
[Delsin/Morphine Records/M>O>S Recordings]
04. BNJMN, Plastic World [Rush Hour]
05. Dominik Eulberg, Diorama [Traum Schallplatten]
06. tobias., Leaning Over Backwards [Ostgut Ton]
07. Jonsson/Alter, Mod [Kontra-Musik]
08. Nebraska, Displacement [Rush Hour]
09. Vincenzo, Wherever I Lay My Head [Dessous Recordings]
10. Massimiliano Pagliara, Focus For Infinity [Live At Robert Johnson]

Steve Kerr
01. Julia Holter, Tragedy [Leaving Records]
02. Zomby, Dedication [4AD]
03. Hype Williams, One Nation [Hippos In Tanks]
04. Max B, Vigilante Season [Amalgam Digital]
05. Maria Minerva, Cabaret Cixous [Not Not Fun Records]
06. Afrikan Sciences, Means And Ways [Deepblak]
07. Oneohtrix Point Never, Replica [Software]
08. Andy Stott, Passed Me By/We Stay Together [Modern Love]
09. Niggas With Guitars, Ethnic Frenzy [Digitalis Recordings]
10. LV & Joshua Idehen, Routes [Keysound Recordings]

Anton Kipfel
01. Andy Stott, Passed Me By [Modern Love]
02. Machinedrum, Room(s) [Planet Mu]
03. Portable, Into Infinity [Perlon]
04. BNJMN, Plastic World [Rush Hour Recordings]
05. Maria Minerva, Cabaret Cixou [Not Not Fun Records]
06. Agnès presents Cavalier, A Million Horses [Drumpoet Community]
07. Roman Flügel, Fatty Folders [Dial]
08. Steffi, Yours & Mine [Ostgut Ton]
09. Jonsson/Alter, Mod [Kontra-Musik]
10. tobias., Leaning Over Backwards [Ostgut Ton]

Kuri Kondrak
01. Morphosis, What Have We Learned
[Delsin/Morphine Records/M>O>S Recordings]
02. John Heckle, The Second Son [Mathematics Recordings]
03. Conforce, Escapism [Delsin]
04. Afrikan Sciences, Means And Ways [Deepblak]
05. J.T.C., Creep Acid [Nation]
06. Kuba Sojka, Mysterious Intrigue [Mathematics Recordings]
07. Legowelt, The TEAC Life [self-released]
08. Lerosa, Amanatto [Uzuri]
09. Fudge Fingas, Now About How [Prime Numbers]
10. Fred P, The Incredible Adventures of Captain P [Soul People Music]

Chris Miller
01. Andy Stott, Passed Me By [Modern Love]
02. Morphosis, What Have We Learned
[Morphine Records/Delsin/M>O>S Recordings]
03. Machinedrum, Room(s) [Planet Mu]
04. Fred P, The Incredible Adventures of Captain P [Soul People Music]
05. Tin Man, Perfume [Salon]
06. tobias., Leaning Over Backwards [Ostgut Ton]
07. BNJMN, Black Square [Rush Hour Direct Current]
08. DJ Qu, Gymnastics [Strength Music Recordings]
09. Tim Hecker, Ravedeath 1972 [Kranky]
10. Martyn, Ghost People [Brainfeeder]

Steve Mizek
01. Machinedrum, Room(s) [Planet Mu]
02. Jonsson/Alter, Mod [Kontra-Musik]
03. BNJMN, Plastic World [Rush Hour Recordings]
04. Agnès presents Cavalier, A Million Horses [Drumpoet Community]
05. Tim Hecker, Ravedeath 1972 [Kranky]
06. Andy Stott, Passed Me By [Modern Love]
07. Portable, Into Infinity [Perlon]
08. Morphosis, What Have We Learned [Delsin]
09. James Blake, James Blake [Atlas Recordings]
10. Hercules & Love Affair, Blue Songs [Moshi Moshi Records]

Jordan Rothlein
01. Machinedrum, Room(s) [Planet Mu]
02. Tin Man, Perfume [Salon]
03. BNJMN, Black Square [Rush Hour Direct Current]
04. Africa HiTech, 93 Million Miles [Warp]
05. Tim Hecker, Ravedeath, 1972 [Kranky]
06. Legowelt, The Teac Life [Legowelt]
07. Roman Flügel, Fatty Folders [Dial]
08. Steffi, Yours & Mine [Ostgut Ton]
09. FaltyDL, You Stand Uncertain [Planet Mu]
10. Elektro Guzzi, Parquet [Macro]

Andrew Ryce
01. Machinedrum, Room(s) [Planet Mu]
02. The Weeknd, House Of Balloons [Not On Label]
03. M83, Hurry Up We’re Dreaming [Mute]
04. Andy Stott, Passed Me By [Modern Love]
05. araabMUZIK, Electronic Dream [Not On Label]
06. Instra:mental, Resolution 653 [NonPlus+]
07. Kuedo, Severant [Planet Mu]
08. Salva, Complex Housing [Friends of Friends]
09. Balam Acab, Wander / Wonder [Tri Angle]
10. Lucy, Wordplay For Working Bees [Stroboscopic Artefacts]

Harry Sword
01. Pinch & Shackelton, Pinch & Shackelton [Honest Jon's]
02. FaltyDL, You Stand Uncertain [Planet Mu]
03. Andy Stott, We Stay Together [Modern Love]
04. Alex Kortex, Kihon [Pomelo]
05. Planetery Assault Systems, The Messenger [Ostgut Ton]
06. Machinedrum, Room(s) [Planet Mu]
07. Omar-S, It Can Be Done But Only I Can Do It [FXHE Records]
08. Legowelt, The TEAC Life [self-released]
09. Surgeon, Breaking the Frame [Dynamic Tension Records]
10. Steffi, Yours & Mine [Ostgut Ton]

What does it mean when the artists who “define” the year are all artists who have been around for at least five years? Considering the list below, it doesn’t speak as much to a dearth of promising new talent in dance music — certainly, I don’t think anyone could say that with a straight face in 2011 — but rather the longevity, ingenuity and constant strive for innovation that seems to drive those at electronic music’s forefront. There were certain artists who seem to break out in a big way in 2011 — James Blake, Blawan, Boddika, Analogue Cops, Maya Jane Coles — but it was something about the dignified yet hungry drive of these veterans below that almost managed to eclipse all of those. Whether it was mutant dub techno, footwork hybrids, creaky tech-house, or any number of variations on acid, techno, and Dial deep house, some of 2011′s most vital sounds came from some very familiar faces.

05. Kassem Mosse

Gunnar Wendel was #2 on this list last year, and that he’s dropped all the way to #5 isn’t a sign of decline rather than ridiculous longevity, a visceral sort of impact that hasn’t seemed to lessen over the past few years since he came to prominence. What’s even more impressive is how he manages to make that visceral impact with music so skeletal and spindly, deep house that sounds like it’s been sucked of the warm and fuzzy spirituality that defines its U.S. strains and instead suffused with the leftover ghosts of minimal. Wendel didn’t really do anything particularly new with his sound in 2011, but at every turn it was still somehow shock and awe: take his third go on the Workshop label, with a 12-minute bumper revolving around one of the year’s most infuriatingly distant vocal refrains, as what sounded like four or five different house anthems bubbled up from underneath. Or his late-year landing on Instra:mental’s NonPlus+, which somehow drained his music of even more humanity and left us with the orchestra of clicks and clacks on the masterful “Enoha.” Wendel’s got a signature sound that he’s not afraid to milk — and I don’t think any of us are going to start complaining anytime soon.

04. Legowelt

Considering the glut of highly specialized, limited and obscure releases Dutch producer Danny Wolfers releases each year under any number of bizarre aliases, the fact that he had an equally steady stream of releases this year doesn’t really seem all that different. But when you consider the quality of tracks like “Sark Island Acid,” “Poverties Paradise,” “Dreams of Nova Scotia,” and a dizzying stream of remixes, it just felt like there were quirky gems dropping left and right through the course of the year. Undoubtedly the biggest impact was made with his free album The TEAC Life, a mammoth but tangential beast that seemed to embody his musical multiple-personality disorder in one hell of a sprawling, intimidating whole. It was as unfriendly as it was captivating, uncompromising and totally, unreservedly awesome, and it was backed up with some of the most refreshing, self-deprecating and meta bits of humor to come from such a usually humorless scene. Back all that up with two brilliant mixes for FACT and us here at Little White Earbuds, and you’ve got yourself a banner year.

03. Andy Stott

Andy Stott has been making really good dub techno for ages as part of Manchester’s Modern Love crew, offering Anglicized takes on the stuff that was heaving and as bass-heavy as the most austere Basic Channel but touched with an effervescent fluidity that aligned him as much with producers like Brendon Moeller and Steven Hitchell. But after years of swirling sheets of chord-cloud, some jaunty, bass music-influenced one-offs in 2009 and one hell of a slo-mo dub lurch with last year’s “Tell Me Anything,” when Andy Stott clawed his way back up from the netherworld in 2011 with his two doublepack EPs he was all but unrecognizable. While second EP We Stay Together patched up some of the holes and used some more recognizable — but still supremely fucked — rhythmic devices to make the tracks just slightly more dance floor, first EP Passed Me By was one of the scariest-sounding things to emerge from any techno scene since, well… ever? Mixing and matching themes and concepts from other genres, Stott was one of the few people in 2011 who tried to make dub techno new and fresh again: an accomplishment in itself given the flood of tired retreads we saw this year.

Photo by Texas Malika Touissant-Baptiste

02. Machinedrum

It might have taken a decade, but Brooklyn’s Travis Stewart is finally getting the recognition he deserves after over a decade of plugging away in obscure scenes. Moving from harsh IDM-tinged material to hip-hop to whatever you want to call this year’s Room(s) on Planet Mu, both by himself and as half of Sepalcure, Stewart seemed to effortlessly capture the bass music zeitgeist. Several times over. With the Fleur EP and eponymous Sepalcure LP, he helped to capitalize on and elucidate bass music’s growing obsession with both house and a general deceleration, rich, luxurious tracks painted in delicate brushstrokes. But it was the vengeful return of his Machinedrum solo alias that really did wonders: pasting footwork freneticism over jungle jitters, his Room(s) took nearly every trend imaginable in bass music and melted it down into one singular pot of uncompromising high-tempo music. One of the few artists to incorporate the ever-trendy footwork influence and do something unique with it, the kind of musical chemistry Stewart engaged with this year was simply uncanny, and he helped to capture the hearts of pretty much everyone with one of the most divisive forms of dance music to emerge in ages.

Photo courtesy of Red Bull Radio

01. Roman Flügel

At first glance it might seem odd to have Roman Flügel at the top of this list, because honestly, he didn’t really do all that much different this year. He just did his own thing at rate a lot more prolific than usual; and when your thing is Roman Flügel, I suppose that’s justification for plaudits alone. After his stunning Live at Robert Johnson mix and its accompanying “Brian Le Bon” single last year, there seemed to have been a fire lit under Mr. Flügel that made him nearly inescapable for most of the year. He continued his LARJ run with the utterly elegant Desperate Housemen EP, but even more notable was how he settled into new home Dial so gracefully. Following on the icy piano hop of last year’s “How To Spread Lies,” Flügel dropped a jazzy, mnml gem out of nowhere with “Brasil” and then flew right back into the clouds with the excellent Fatty Folders album. This darted through house, jazz, ambient, and the kind of weirdo-minimal we know him best for, all with the grace and composure we expect from such a legend. It might seem like the worst kind of backpedaling to bestow an honor like “best artist” upon an established and well-respected pioneer, but when anyone has a year as uncommonly great as Roman Flügel did in 2011, they deserve to be congratulated for it.

[Modern Love]

Earlier this year, Andy Stott released Passed Me By, a mini-LP that confounded popular opinion on his sound. Stott’s prior work tended toward shimmering dub house and dub techno, often distinctive but never especially risky. Passed Me By could feasibly be called dub house or dub techno too, albeit with one major hitch. The record drags semblances of dance rhythms to claustrophobic, murky depths, reducing uptempo tracks to seething, blotchy dirges — in short, it’s Stott moving far, far away from the club. We Stay Together, Stott’s new record, is an able companion to Passed Me By. It’s similarly mired in sludginess, and this indistinctness means it’s also an inconstant experience. Cursory listens to “Bad Wires” suggest the track’s shuffling, somnolent rhythm is rallying around a muted organ tone, like if everything wasn’t so submerged and caked in grit there would be a legitimate hook to hold onto. But listening later under slightly different circumstances, that tone’s marginal pop appeal seems like a happy accident; it flutters off into the mix, hardly fixed at all.

Apart from physical issues like tape decay, it’s odd to think of recordings as unreliable, and obviously these tracks aren’t magically remixing themselves behind your back. Stott’s sound design is such that each track feels contained, and perhaps even more than its predecessor, We Stay Together sounds preoccupied with its sonorous undercurrent. The low-end is so overwhelmingly prominent that what appears above is often wispy and fleeting, an ethereal counter to the rhythms’ bulbous trudge. Although Stott employed similar techniques on Passed Me By, there’s definitely something bleaker about this record. Tracks like “Intermittent” and “New Ground” include overt nods to funk and R&B tropes, the former in its liquid bass line, the latter in a chopped, melancholic female vocal sample. We Stay Together has no such bass lines, and when Stott messes with the (sparse) vocals, the results are creepy: the vocal on “We Stay Together (Part One)” is pitched down so low that it resembles a kind of deaf animal groan, like a bear roaring through plexiglass.

These kinds of garbled sounds abound. “Posers” pans a similarly unintelligible vocal back and forth amid a grim rhythmic rumble, while “Cherry Eye” features creaky snippets of strings and a repeating tone that recalls a nosediving airplane, both sounding utterly swamped by the track’s lurch. “Submission” is a stirring exception to the rule — all beatless, looming atmospherics, it captures a similar forlorn detachedness as pieces by Burial or Demdike Stare. Above all, We Stay Together is commendable for its mutability. It’s clearly a dense record, but its palette — foggier and more autumnal than that of Passed Me By — makes it difficult to pinpoint how, exactly. Repeat listens dredge up new hooks as much as they submerge old ones. If anything is clear, it’s that Stott’s crafted an uncommonly consuming, consistently phantasmagoric effort.

The transition from digital to post-digital is the theme of the third annual Alpha-ville Festival, which takes place September 22-25 in several venues around London. They’ve booked everyone from artists to researchers, architects to coders who are exploring the frontiers of technology, philosophy, art, computing, and media. The festival includes live performances, often with AV components, from exciting audio artists including Andy Stott, Pantha Du Prince, Kangding Ray, and more, as well as film screenings, discussion panels, and workshops. Tickets can be purchased here. LWE has assembled a comprehensive guide to the festival and even want to help you see the Saturday show (ft. Matthew Dear, Jennifer Cardini, Kangding Ray, Max Cooper, Anstam, Emptyset, and Truss) for free. To win a pair of tickets for this event, simply send an email with “ALPHA-VILLE” in the subject line to contest[at]littlewhiteearbuds.com by September 21 at 10am CST. We’ll choose one winner at random from the entries and notify the person via email. Good luck and make sure to check out the guide below.

Svarte Greiner, who plays the opening concert. Photo by Chris Erlbeck

+ Opening Concert
@ Rich Mix / £12.50 / 7pm
Alpha-ville 2011 kicks off with live AV performances from Old Apparatus and Svarte Greiner, as well as a live PA by Jacaszek.

Pantha Du Prince, who plays live at XOYO

+ Post-Digital Culture Symposium
@ Rich Mix / £40.00 / 9:30am-5pm
This all-day event brings together a panel of influential artists, thinkers and digital professionals to discuss and debate topics such us the humanization of digital technology, augmented reality and the use of public spaces, digital innovation in arts and culture, the role of the “new artist,” data and social innovation, the future of the web and more. Participants include:

Scott Snibbe: media artist, filmmaker, creative director of Björk’s Biophilia app
Tom Uglow: director of Creative Labs Europe, Google
Filip Visnjic: founder of Creative Applications Network
Drew Hemment: director & founder of FutureEverything and Associate Director of Imagination Lancaster
Bill Thompson: BBC technology writer
Charles Beckett: relationship manager, Digital and Creative Economy, Arts Council London
Olivia Solon: associate editor at Wired
Ronald Carpentier: VP marketing & operations, Layar/Sticktu
Patrick Hussey: digital manager at Arts & Business
Katy Beale: director at Caper & lead producer at Culture Hack
Ben Stevenson: founder of Augmented Reality Cinema
Moritz Stefaner: Information Designer
Keiichi Matsuda: designer and film-maker
Man Bartlett: artist

+ Innovation
@ Netil House / £5 / 12-7pm
Located in the heart of Hackney (on London Fields between Broadway Market and Mare Street), the Innovation Space in Netil House’s warehouse exhibition space features a curated exhibition of installations and interactive artworks, various workshops, discussions, cutting edge music performances, open labs, web experiments and much more. As the main festival hub, the Innovation Space will bring together the various strands explored in this year’s festival. Full schedule here.

+ Live
@ XOYO / £13.50 / 8:30pm-3am
A two room showcase of AV and live PAs, featuring Pantha Du Prince, Jon Hopkins with Dan Tombs, and Illium Sphere in Room 1; Andy Stott and Max Cooper will play live in Room 2.

Kanding Ray, who plays Hearn Street Warehouse

+ Innovation
@ Netil House / £5 / 11-7pm
Located in the heart of Hackney (on London Fields between Broadway Market and Mare Street), the Innovation Space in Netil House’s warehouse exhibition space features a curated exhibition of installations and interactive artworks, various workshops, discussions, cutting edge music performances, open labs, web experiments and much more. As the main festival hub, the Innovation Space will bring together the various strands explored in this year’s festival. Full schedule here.

+ Screening
@ The Vortex / £7 / 12-5pm
A showcase of the latest digital film making trends including short film, animation and documentaries. Screenings curated by Alpha-ville and guest curators including Paul Purgas, Athens Video Art festival and Unit 15′s Bartlett School of Architecture. Events include:

“PressPausePlay,” a film about the digital culture, hopes and fears. 90 minutes.

Unit 15 Bartlett School of Architecture showcase, a talk and screening of selected works of students from one of the most cutting edge design units at Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL).

“Nobody Here” program curated by Paul Purgas, a selection of artists’ moving image exploring themes of culture, identity and ownership in the expanded digital age. These include Al + Al’s Eternal Youth; Daniel Swan’s Lux Daze; Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never)’s Nobody Here; and Paul B Davies’ Compression Study 4.

Alpha-ville 2011 program:

Nicolas Provost, “Stardust” (features cameos by Jon Voigt, Jack Nicholson and the last recorded footage of Dennis Hopper)
David O’Reilly, “The External World”
Carsten Nicolai, “Future Past Perfect pt. 3 (u_08-1)”
Greg Tan, “Mediating Mediums – The Digital 3D”
Eric Schockmel, “The Great Western Singularity”
Michael Please, “The Eagleman Stag”
Timo Arnall, “Wireless in the World”
Markus Kayser, “Solar Sinter”

+ Live
@ Hearn Street Warehouse / £13.50 / 8pm-5:30am
A showcase of live AV sets, DJ sets, and live PAs from Kangding Ray, Emptyset, Anstam, Jennifer Cardini (DJ), Matthew Dear (DJ), and Truss (DJ).

Want to win tickets for this show? See the intro above for more details

Jennifer Cardini, special guest at the Make Music Workshop

+ Innovation
@ Netil House / £5 / 12-6pm
Located in the heart of Hackney (on London Fields between Broadway Market and Mare Street), the Innovation Space in Netil House’s warehouse exhibition space features a curated exhibition of installations and interactive artworks, various workshops, discussions, cutting edge music performances, open labs, web experiments and much more. As the main festival hub, the Innovation Space will bring together the various strands explored in this year’s festival. Full schedule here.

+ Screening
@ Platform Cafe/Bar at Netil House / £7 / 1-5pm

“PressPausePlay,” a film about the digital culture, hopes and fears. 90 minutes.

Athens Video Art Festival compilation collects video works that pose questions marking a starting point for a substantial shift from the surface straight to the core of contemporary societies. Entries include:

Beetroot Designgroup, “Human Error”
Jorinna Scherle, “Tonight”
Westerberg Cecilia, “Cry me a river”
Szabo Balazs, “Rom”
Makiko Fukaya, “Drift”

Spanish Borders is an exhibition that brings together Spanish artists working in audiovisual format from a permeable perspective, where the practice of video art intersects with other disciplines such as film, video games, video or graphic design. Participants and their work include:

Onionlab, “Dream”
Actop, “Golden Shield”
Cesar Pesquera, “Circle One”
Alvaro Perez Posadas, “Amateur”
Alba G. Corral, “Gold Thinkings”
Joaquin Urbina, “Whirling Ceremony”

Alpha-ville Moving Image Competition screens the winners of the 2011 moving image competition in partnership with Vimeo, Little White Lies, Shooting People and Animate Projects. Alpha-ville has invited artists working across all genres including animation (2D, 3D, stop-frame, CGI, motion graphics, etc), fiction, documentary or experimental. With panelists from Ars Electronica, Warp Films, Little White Lies and Hackney Film Festival, this will be an opportunity to discover new talent.

+ Exchange
@ Space Studios / £5 / 12am-5pm
A practical introductory workshop for women wanting to learn creative ways of making and mixing electronic music for dance, mixed-media installations and moving image. Features special guest Jennifer Cardini and instructor Jo Thomas. Space is limited to 15-20 participants.

+ Live
More info TBA.

01. Specter, “Pipe Bomb” [Sound Signature] (buy)
It’s not uncommon for new records to contain music written several years prior to release; and even by this standard, Specter’s “Pipe Bomb” has had an especially lengthy gestation period. The Chicago producer known to his friends as Andres Ordonez first wrote this massive track in 2006, but it wasn’t until 2010 when he offered it to Theo Parrish that it found a worthy outlet on Sound Signature. Still, it existed in white label limbo for many months before finally seeing official release in recent weeks. It’s safe to say, though, “Pipe Bomb” was worth the wait. Just as explosive as its title suggests, it’s hardly your typical 2011 summertime anthem. It’s closer to what you might hear while ripping through the earth’s atmosphere: Deliberate like a flying object so far away you can’t judge its intense speed; its textures scorched and vibrating around the edges; only soft, bleeping permutations and the occasional bass lick providing evidence of human involvement; “Pipe Bomb” sounds as much like an act of destruction as of creation. It’s an immense effort from an underrated producer that’s sure to level dance floors wherever it’s played.

02. Soundstore, “Take U” [Ostgut Ton] (buy)
New Ostgut Ton mix CDs are always highly anticipated events, not only for the stellar mixes but also because of the exclusive tracks they inevitably contain. Prosumer’s Panorama Bar 03 is no different on either count. In fact, five of its 17 tracks were heretofore unreleased, three of which appear on an O-Ton single of the same name. Many have plumped for Steffi’s emotional cut, “Sadness,” but the track I keep returning to is “Take U” by Soundstore. It’s likely the work of Frank Timm, better known as Sound Stream, although it’s fittingly a departure from the material under his more famous moniker. The way its buzzing organ riffs build and repeat recalls his surgically spliced loops, but the blown out quality of the kicks and claps provide the grit that complete this scruffy new aesthetic. It’s a perfect match for Prosumer’s classically informed mix but it slots into a variety of sets with ease; even its cheeky last minute of quavering tone is a gift to DJs. Only time will tell if Timm will offer more delectable rough cuts from his Soundstore.

03. Trickski, “Wilderness” (Genius Of Time Remix) [Suol] (buy)
Given the reception they’ve received in their short existence, the Swedish duo Genius of Time could just as easily be known as Geniuses of Timing. Alexander Burg and Nils Krogh have been separately building their profiles over the last half decade, the former as half of Tennishero and Dorisburg and the latter as a jazz artist under the Dealers Of Nordic Music umbrella. Strongly influenced by classic disco/house sounds and bolstered by contemporary synth arrangements, their three releases together are well suited for the current musical climate and have earned them worthy praise. Trickski wisely recruited the pair to remix “Wilderness,” a competent but unspectacular slowhouse cut from their forthcoming album. Genius of Time retain the loping tempo but offer a grander vision, one encompassing sophisticated melodic pairings and crispy percussion against a constantly evolving backdrop of twinkling tones. Just as they’ve managed to elevate Trickski’s latest, I fully expect this talented duo are on their way up to even greater things.

04. Dan Berkson, “Anything For You”
[Crosstown Rebels] (buy)
Crosstown Rebels has received a bad rap for putting out what’s considered populist house music, especially as they’ve come to dominate charts and parties with increasingly vocal driven tracks from artists like Art Department, Deniz Kurtel or Maceo Plex. I have to give their A&R team credit: they know a catchy track when they hear it, notions of “good taste” be damned. “Anything For You” by Dan Berkson is a rare cut that manages to achieve both aims at once, offering intricate arrangements that feel as effortless as they are memorable. The flaring bass line arpeggio was what first grabbed my attention, especially when paired with the rapid fire hi-hats and variable kick drum patterns. Sweeping chords and gorgeous synth string arrangements only sweeten things, and a judiciously applied vocal promising to “give you anything” is the cherry on top. Berkson has been plying his craft for nearly a decade now, but for my money this is his best effort to date — one that Crosstown Rebels was smart to snap up. And when an irresistible track tugs at your body to dance, it doesn’t matter whose names are on the label.

05. Maya Jane Coles, “Focus Now”
[20:20 Vision] (buy)
The most potent message in Stefan Goldmann’s widely discussed piece for us was that doing anything but standing out is a waste of time. It seems Maya Jane Coles has internalized this sentiment from the start, earning her rise to prominence with an accessible but uncommon sound. She’s perhaps at her sharpest on her new EP for 20:20 Vision and particularly on the title track, “Focus Now.” Its spherical synth notes hit against various musical memories as they roll across the scale without congealing into any semblance of pastiche. From the slight bass sounds rubbing beneath each note to the shuffling, snare roll percussion, the tune avoids any obvious paths and yet seems entirely logical — the kind of thing you always hope someone would create but rarely do. By being her quirky self, MJC is quickly proving Goldmann right and growing her fan base above and underground.

06. Andy Stott, “Intermittent” [Modern Love] (buy)
07. MD, “It Ain’t What It Ain’t”
[Rush Hour Recordings] (buy)
08. Morphosis, “Kawn”
[M>O>S/Delsin/Morphine] (buy)
09. Pittsburgh Track Authority, “77B” [Uzuri] (buy)
10. DJ Yoav B, “Wisdom Bob” [Meakusa] (buy)

Staff Charts:

Per Bojsen-Moller
01. Andy Stott, “North To South” [Modern Love]
02. Disco 5, “A1″ [Analogue Solutions]
03. MK, “Given (MK Dub)” [FXHE]
04. Redshape, “Laser” [Present]
05. DJ Qu, “Babyluv” [Strength Music]
06. Palisade, “So What?” [Laid]
07. Brawther, “Spaceman Funk” [Secretsundaze Music]
08. Julio Bashmore, “Batty Knee Dance” [3024]
09. Braille, “The Year 3000″ [Rush Hour]
10. D/R/U/G/S, “Love/Lust” [Tender Age]

Anton Kipfel
01. Andy Stott, “North To South” [Modern Love]
02. Invisible Conga People, “In A Hole” [DFA]
03. Roman Flügel, “Lovedancing” [Live At Robert Johnson]
04. Moomin, “Watermelon” (Marvin Dash Edit) [Aim]
05. Elgato, “Music” (Body Mix) [Hessle Audio]
06. Aroy Dee, “Beauty” [M>O>S Recordings]
07. Genius of Time, “Houston We Have A Problem” [Royal Oak]
08. Tom Demac, “Ten From Seventeen” [liebe*detail spezial]
09. Redshape, “In Space We Trust” [Present]
10. Tale of Us, “Dark Song” [Visionquest]

Kuri Kondrak
01. Big Strick, “State of Emergency” [7 Days Ent.]
02. Spekter, “Pipe Bomb” [Sound Signature]
03. Noleian Reusse, “A1″ [Love What You Feel]
04. Royalty, “Heat Ray” [Five Easy Pieces]
05. Daniel Andréasson, “cONCUSSION36″ [Tabernacle Records]
06. Rootstrax, “Harlequin” [Deeply Rooted House]
07. Tom Trago, “Space Balloon” [Rush Hour]
08. Miles Sagnia, “Can We Heal Them?” [Atmospheric Existence]
09. Pittsburgh Track Authority, “Duskshaped” [Uzuri]
10. Meschi, “Raining In Here” [Lunar Disko]

Chris Miller
01. Machinedrum, “Lay Me Down” [Planet Mu]
02. Mike Dunn, “Gherkin Aftermath 909″ [Rush Hour]
03. Tevo Howard, “Arena” [Tevo Howard Recordings]
04. Kassem Mosse, “7am” [Mikrodisko]
05. Instra:mental, “Rift Zone” [Nonplus]
06. Tin Man, “Forever” [Global A]
07. Hunee, “A Leaf For Hand In Hand” [Ostgut Ton]
08. Holger Zilske, “É Preciso Acreditar” [Absurd Recordings]
09. Palisade, “So What?” [Laid]
10. R-A-G, “Rage” [M>O>S Recordings]

Jordan Rothlein
01. Roman Fluegel, “Brasil” [Dial]
02. Deadboy, “Ain’t Gonna Lie” [Numbers]
03. Midland, “Shelter” [Aus Music]
04. Emptyset feat. Cornelius Harris, “Altogether Lost” (Peverelist Remix) [Caravan]
05. Steffi, “Sadness” [Ostgut Ton]
06. Hitsafe, “Let The Acid Out” (Tin Man Remix) [Shaddock Records]
07. Autechre, “Drane” [Warp]
08. Soundstore, “Take U” [Ostgut Ton]
09. Tin Man, “Love Sick” [Salon Records]
10. DJ Yoav B., “Sunset Glow Disko” [Meakusma]

[Modern Love]

How much can you strip away from something before it’s no longer the thing you started with? Is there some pivot-point at which the shadow of the thing ceases to represent anything at all, becoming not much more than a hazy, amorphous form darker than what surrounds it? The record I’ve had on repeat recently has got me thinking about little else. The thing in question here is house music; the guy with the Exacto knife is Modern Love’s golden boy Andy Stott; and the shivery shadow is Passed Me By, said golden boy’s latest release. Stott — without question one of the most inventive bass music heads around by way of his Millie & Andrea project with Miles Whittaker, not to mention a deeply on-point wrangler of techno under his own name — has twisted and tugged at our perceptions of dance genres before, most recently when he stretched dub textures out like Silly Putty on “Tell Me Anything,” his last solo outing for Modern Love. But what he’s done to house music across the four sides of Passed Me By — and I’m arguing that somewhere inside all this gory throbbing lie six carcasses of straight-up, four-to-the-floor house tunes — constitutes violence against peak time on an order you probably wouldn’t expect out of a producer whose records tend to embrace it. Passed Me By might be dance music shaved down to within an inch of its life, but it’s an inch far too tantalizing to be left for dead.

Where Shackleton — a distant sonic relative, to be sure, but admittedly a good reference point — takes us deep inside ourselves, Andy Stott instead puts us immediately in the present: this ain’t no pre-historical tribal jam; rather, it’s guerrilla fucking warfare. Each track places you on a block where a bomb just went off the moment before your heart’s gotten the message to start racing. The disorientation begins with the woozy “Signature,” a half-minute of gurgling and a necessary pallet-cleanser for what’s to come. The assault starts in earnest with “New Ground,” and it’s difficult to think of a better title for the track: a lonely voice calls out over a recently bombed-out landscape, the only perceptible movement in the track before sinister hi-hats start skittering across its scorched earth in the track’s final third. “North To South” sounds like an air raid might through ears deafened by an overabundance of them. In another producer’s hands, you’d expect the track to feel lifeless, but through the iciest of melodies, Stott creates a nearly anthemic moment, albeit one carried out in slow-motion. “Intermittent” features a soul sample so chopped to smithereens, you wouldn’t have the remotest sense of the source material if Stott didn’t reconstitute it as the track enters its death throes. The only track which might find its way into a DJ set not otherwise made up only of Workshop B-sides, the cavernous “Dark Details,” steps with the swagger and snap of a man who’s just sold his soul to the devil; hear it, and you’re likely to skank your way to the opposite side of the street. To be the darkest transmission of this collection is something of a feat, but “Execution” accomplishes it: excruciatingly slow and brimming with satanic growls, it even out-creeps Stott’s label-mates Demdike Stare.

How strange, then, that the set ends on a note that feels nearly poignant. Heavy and hungover, “Passed Me By” suggests this horror-show may have been little more than an unwise combination of substances. You’re feeling it today, to be certain, but as the sunlight trickles in for the first time in what feels like centuries, you realize how singular a spirit-journey Andy Stott has taken you on. I’m not sure what context these tracks were intended for (other than a moderate-to-severe panic attack), but I have no doubt that they represent a leap forward for someone whose studio chops needed no proving. House music has officially gotten its side blown off, and while the vast majority of adherents to the genre will easily shake this one off, I’m excited to hear from those producers who are truly injured or at the very least traumatized by the experience. I suspect all listeners will be left wondering what happened last night and where this lingering sense of dread is coming from. But we’ll let out a sigh, put on our shades, gladly accept that Bloody Mary, and slide ever so slowly into Monday, hoping all of this was just a deliciously strange dream.

In the final weeks of 2008, the Modern Love stable from Northern England unleashed a brand new off-shoot called Daphne. The strictly limited first pressing from the fledgling imprint was credited to Millie & Andrea, with the music contained therein a thick stew of heavy, dub-influenced techno and dubstep. Further investigation into the mysterious female duo revealed that they were in fact none other than Miles Whittaker (of Pendle Coven and Demdike Stare) and Andy Stott. Armed to the teeth with ideas that sat outside their production day jobs, they came together to work on bass-wise tracks that incorporated elements of techno, dubstep, juke, jungle and old hardcore. Further releases included the brutal crush of “Temper Tantrum” and the old school junglist vibe of “Ever Since You Came Down,” and the pair has released solo work on Daphne under the Millie and Andrea banners, too. LWE tracked down the duo to get to the bottom of their alter-ego pseudonym, find out what their working process was like and to pry out a ridiculously weighty podcast that will seriously mess with those who can’t handle low-end frequencies.

LWE Podcast 81: Millie & Andrea (47:39)

Tracklist:

01. Millie & Andrea, “Intro” [white*]
02. Pangaea, “Memories” [white]
03. Andrea, Got To Forget [Daphne]
04. Perc, “1909″ (Millie’s Dark Room Mix) [Perc Trax]
05. Instra:mental, “Forbidden” [Apple Pips]
06. The Men From Del Bosca, “Bajo-El-Austral” [Giant Trax]
07. Chasing Voices, “Acidbathory” [Preserved Instincts]
08. Altered Natives, “Bullet Blade Knuckle Slap” (Souled Remix)
[Fresh Minute Music]
09. Andy Stott, “Drippin” [Modern Love]
10. Millie, “Untitled” [white*]
11. UNLTD / Israel Vines, “Reclaim” [Borrowed Language]
12. Drexciya, “Aqua Worm Hole” [Underground Resistance]
* denotes tracks which, as of the time of publishing, are unreleased

You’re both mainstays of the Modern Love/Boomkat camp. Can you tell us about your association with the label and why you guys almost exclusively release through them?

It’s a family thing, is the simplest explanation. We’re all good friends, we enjoy hanging out, and getting each other enthusiastic about new music. That’s easily the main reason, it’s also a lot to do with the creative freedom we have with Modern Love, that attitude from a label feeds the artist’s hunger for creating.

Miles, I understand you started out mastering records. Were you producing at the time as well or did that come later?

Miles: I’ve always produced, since I was 16 years old when I bought my first synth and drum machine. But for many years it was just an exploratory process, getting hooked on equipment and hunting new pieces down and learning to connect and use them, which kept me busy but also pretty unfocused musically. This kind of played in my favor and helped my palette expand almost accidentally, as I was taking the route of buying the techno boxes and writing techno, getting Akai samplers and writing jungle, using software for more digital/experimental music, getting an MPC for writing hip hop, etc. I love how technology can help shape the evolution of music, even if it’s deemed archaic at the time of evolution (the Roland boxes are a prime example).

How did you each get into making music?

Miles: I wanted to know how people could get those sounds out of those boxes, and have them all talking to one another. I’ve been friends with Gary from Pendle Coven for 18 years, he first introduced me to Autechre’s music which inspired us both to plug in and experiment, it’s been a slippery slope since then.

Andy: I was always into music as a kid, staying up late taping hardcore tunes off local radio shows then checking them out on my way to school. I never knew who made these tunes either. I had a keyboard back then and would learn some of the lines from the tunes and would play them back. Not long after that I got introduced to Mark Stewart (Claro Intelecto). Mark introduced me to lots of new stuff, not just tunes, but kit and what kit did what; from then on my interest in making tracks just grew.

You both release on your own but also come together to form Millie & Andrea. Tell us about the gender bending pseudonym and how it came about. Any love letters from fan boys?

No love letters yet, though people love the artwork as much as the music, which really helps. Radu Prepeleac came up with the design that suits the music and pseudonym perfectly. We thought the choice of names and artwork would distance the releases from our normal monikers, and Daphne quickly became a home for the more crossover material we were playing around with. Again it all comes down to fun, getting together. Andy & I just play with the form and see what comes out.

You even have your own offshoot label Daphne exclusively for these releases. Was making dubbed out bass-wise stuff something that just happened when you collaborated together or did you decide that’s the sort of thing you wanted to make together?

Well we’ve always been open minded about music, we’re not big genre fans, and since we’ve been meeting up and jamming there’s been a few tracks that wouldn’t fit with anything else we’d done. Hence the offshoot label was born to provide a home for these tracks.

The most recent Daphne record saw Andy playing around with juke. Is that something we’re likely to see more of?

Andy: The juke stuff at first was just a mess around on my part. I think it’s going back to the old copying hardcore tunes in my youth. I just wanted to have a play with the juke sound. I know it’s not everybody’s thing, but I had a lot of fun making it but I found it difficult at the same time. I’m pretty sure I’ll be messing around with it more but who knows? We shall see…

Andy had you produced with anyone else before?

Andy: I haven’t really. I have worked a lot with Miles for this project, but even before the Daphne label I was going over to Miles’ and Gaz’s studio for many a good bass heavy session.

How do you work together, ie. do you have similar set-ups or do you just work in one person’s studio?

We have completely different set-ups, which is much more a boon than a hindrance as there’s more different sounds and ingredients for us to throw into the equation. We’ve done a lot of sessions in Miles’ studio, as it’s geared up for other people to come along and join in, but sometimes we work remotely too depending on time and logistics.

Does working with someone else make it harder to realise tracks?

Depends on their personality, but more often than not bouncing ideas to another producer tends to create more material and defines more focus. You have to be geared up to work with other people though, as music is a very personal experience. If you’re honest and realize each other’s strengths and weaknesses then most of the hard work doesn’t become apparent, as you’re too busy having fun!

Have you played live as Millie & Andrea before or is it a DJ/producer project?

We have played a few shows as Millie & Andrea, and we’ve enjoyed them thoroughly. The last one was in London for Plex at Corsica Studios where we played mostly unreleased material with some variations on the 12″ tracks.

Tell about the mix you’ve done for us.

It’s taken us ages to do it!

What can we expect from each of you and your various projects in the next year?

Much more, there are solo releases coming from both Andy and myself in the first quarter of 2011, and maybe as M&A too, we will see.

LWE Podcast 81: Millie & Andrea (47:39)

[Modern Love]

The last time we heard from Andy Stott under his given name was via the chord heavy, single-sided, club murderer “Night Jewel.” More recently his solo, bass-wise excursion as Andrea (of Millie & Andrea duo) saw the producer pay homage to old jungle and breakbeat to equally devastating effect. The Mancunian’s latest release gets fathoms deep in the feeling with two horizontal pieces of house for slate gray days and heavy-hearted catharsis. Both sides are ponderous, oblique, deep house versions, filled with so much weighty emotion they threaten to break like looming, darkening clouds. It’s the kind of house music that could only come from the Northern, rain soaked skies and is a natural off-sider to the equally moody techno that the Modern Love label is so good at.

Stott seems to have procured inspiration for “Tell Me Anything” in the lower registers of his keyboards, pitching down the gravity-heavy pads to impossibly slow rates, and matching them with a bass line that is almost subliminal. It’s the shuffling hi-hats and stop motion claps that keep things rooted in a housey vein, along with some lighter, shimmering keys that momentarily appear to hover, weightless over the otherwise dense cloud of the track. “Love Nothing,” for all its nihilistic implications, tugs incessantly at the heart; its brooding, stone-wall chords are somehow buoyed by an icy vocal sample repeating, “drive me crazy.” When the rough-hewn decay of the chords threaten to become too much on their own, Stott unleashes another bass line that hits you way below the belt. These studied, purposeful maneuvers by Stott are typical of the quality we’ve come to expect from the Modern Love label, and add another must-have release to the discography of one of its chief propagators.

Popular music has always flirted with the idea of gender ambiguity. David Bowie and indeed much of the glam rock scene supposed flouncy gender-bending alter-egos and it has been a theme employed time and again by many an artist, finding its way into dance music probably first through people like Brian Eno and Throbbing Gristle. Having followed the releases on Modern Love’s offspring imprint Daphne with some fervour, I was surprised however to find out that the Millie & Andrea duo who had been issuing blunt, dreadnought dubs, were in fact not studio-wise ladies with a penchant for bum-worrying bass, but MLZ and Andy Stott. Going it alone for this one, Andrea (Stott) marks the change with two tracks considerably more “feminine” by nature, instilling measured doses of honeyed vocals into both “You Still Got Me” and “Got To Forget.”

The tone of the two tracks are noticeably lighter, too, with garagey elements proliferating throughout. “You Still Got Me” metes out slick, sped up vocal swatches over dreamy, hopeful pads, but balances this with old school, cut out drum loops and a deep-sea mining bass line. “Got To Forget” takes a more ethereal approach, enveloping everything in a hazy golden filter that even makes the granular percussion sound mellowed out, softened by the rays of the sun. Despite the apparent softening of aesthetic on this latest Daphne release, there is still a lot of heavy pressure cooking in these tracks that comes through by the sickening weight of the bass lines used and the familiar breaks reproduced in all their gritty glory. It all adds up to perhaps the finest in the Daphne series thus far and a win for Andy Stott’s skirt-wearing alter ego.

Modern Love have made a huge impact in 2009; the past few months alone have seen crucial releases by Claro Intelecto, MLZ and Demdike Stare. Now it’s label staple Andy Stott’s turn as he returns with only his second release this year, and it’s one that’s been well worth waiting for. Where Stott’s “Brief Encounter/Drippin” twelve dropped earlier in the year pandered to his late night deep techno and dubstep sides, the single sided “Night Jewel” finds Stott in a much more lively state of mind, ready for some serious sneaker squeaking.

Stott’s productions are founded on keeping things raw and relatively simple. You’ll not find unnecessary clutter filling out any of his tracks or plastic sounding digital effects tweaking them into oblivion; what you get is an analogue feel of uncooked moodiness crafted with absolute precision. “Night Jewel” is no exception to this method, using only a repetitive, building chord pattern and a sickeningly overweight bass to provide the melody for the track, with equally unfussy percussion to compliment it. The chords are filtered down to shards sharp as sharks teeth before rounding out again, creating a cyclic movement throughout the track, a sense of it almost breathing. The bass, when it finally drops, creates a vacuum that almost sucks the very life out of the other elements surrounding it. Simplistic to the end, “Night Jewel” adds and subtracts its components over the course of its duration, fires off subtly changing percussive hits and scores a direct bulls-eye with a track just wants to be re-cued the second it’s over.