Stream: Millie & Andrea ‘Drop the Vowels’
I don’t know Demdike Stare, but the other half of Millie & Andrea is Andy Stott, which piqued my interest plenty in the duo’s new LP Drop the Vowels. Like Nicolas Jaar venturing slightly away from his more ambient side by adding a musical partner on his Darkside project, Millie & Andrea seems to have injected a new flavor into Stott’s minimal dub/electronic work. Best known for his outstanding Luxury Problems LP (which featured vocal snippets from his former piano teacher) and the scintillating Passed Me By EP, Stott isn’t exactly crafting bubblegum pop with the first LP from his longstanding side project. From the damaged house of “Stay Ugly” to the stuttering grooves of “Spectral Source,” it is an album with a pulse set for the dancefloor, even if it is a dancefloor situated in a dirty and dark alleyway. Even when things lightened a bit, like on the grimey “Corrosive,” the high-hats are bright and the bassline thump from beneath a layer of fog. It is a heavy album, but in a more direct way than some of Stott’s other work. It doesn’t surround you and wiggle its way into your conscience as much as plow right through you and force you to take notice. By the time the somber, reflective “Quay” wraps up the LP, it feels like the last breath after a chaotic night in the city. Listen below to the whole LP, which came out on 3/31, and grab it from the Modern Love label.
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