August 28, 2006 | Posted by Blair at 9:10 PM

Manc.

Andy Stott - Choke

Now, I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about when it comes to electronic music, but there's this whole genre (or possibly it's still considered still a sub-genre) out there called "dubstep" that I know next to nothing about. The amazing Rephlex label has championed it in their two volumes of Grime. They were a pair of great instrumental-only compilations - if anything I'd call it the post-millennial manifestation of jungle - that featured Mark One, Kode9, and Digital Mystiks, among others. They really threw me for a loop when I first heard them, because they just consist of minimal, chopped up dubby beats, and growling basslines, but without any of the emcees that usually populate the "grime" genre.

Anyway, this track, by young Manchester-native Andy Stott, definitely falls into this vein of electronic production - a slippery rhythm paired with buzzing bass - but this track isn't Stott's only weapon. Rather, it is just one part of the fabric of his skills that he lays throughout his new full-length album, Merciless, out in September on Modern Love.

It turns out that Modern Love is an arm of Boomkat.com, the online manifestation of Pelicanneck Records in Manchester - one of my absolute favorite record shops back when I lived there in the heady late-90s. One of the great facts about Stott that appears on his bio is that he is one of a select few artists to have been invited back for more than one session on Mary Anne Hobbs' Breezeblock show on BBC Radio 1 - which was my favorite radio show on the beeb besides John Peel.

Anyway, as I was saying, this dubstep track is just one piece of Stott's sound, which is also replete with sweet synths, strings, ambient passages, and dub-techno beats. It actually reminds me a lot of the first full-length album by Bola called Soup - another Manchester-based electronic act whom I really like a lot. Merciless is out in mid-September, and will be available here in the US via our friends at Forced Exposure, or in the UK via Boomkat (obvs).

Recommended.

Comments

nice track, a little bit Vangelis here and there. now I don't know too much about dubstep either but I'd've said the template included tempo as well as whether it's empty, dark, reverbed into next week etc. - most of the stuff I've heard is up around 135bpm or a bit either side. for labels, check Planet Mu rather than Rephlex, Hyperdub (released the Burial album, which is supposed to be the Platonic ideal dubstep record, it is really very good, somehow it manages Blade Runner without Vangelis), DMZ (the Digital Mystikz' label), Hotflush ... the quick way in is to go to www.bleep.com (Warp Records' downloads shop), browse by label but choose "Road", which is their grime/dubstep/etc. department, and have a look around ... plenty of music, plenty of links to other sources of info.

so you were in Manchester in the late '90s? so was I! did you ever go to a bar session called 'Finestyle' at Bar Centro on Tib Street? given your taste these days you'd've loved it.

cheers
a>

Posted by: AndiChapple at August 29, 2006 6:40 AM

For further listening you might want to check out:-

Burial

Vex'd

Ether

Predictably they can all be found on myspace.


RM x

Posted by: reverend merrick at August 29, 2006 11:32 AM

Excellent suggestions gents... will continue my investigation!

Posted by: robot Blair at August 29, 2006 12:22 PM

GREAT track. Love the ending...

MFR has such awesome electronica.

Great post, b.

Cheers.

-LVK

Posted by: Ludwig at August 29, 2006 10:35 PM

check out mathhead & syrup sisters for some brooklyn dubstep flavor.

Posted by: Haldan at August 30, 2006 1:11 AM
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