Andy StottLate Loop Vinyl LP

After a five-year absence, Andy Stott returns with Late Loop. This time, he set off with no plan, just a few parameters: no basslines, no reverb, no effects except for a delay unit. It was like learning a new language, a full reset. For a while, it was an experimental drone album, then something like brass band concrète, or what could have been an art installation. Each version got close enough to finished that a less stubborn man would have shipped it and moved on. But everything was mostly texture, and texture wasn't it. He wanted songs. Then there were two voices: Alison Skidmore, Andy's vocal spar for more than a decade; and Elaine Howley, a singular voice in her own right, new to the fold. They were given songs, some of them more or less finished, others just fragments or loops, often pitched and screwed. Vocals were layered up, then carved down to the bone. The songs, mostly about a separation, were arranged, discarded, sometimes resurrected. Eventually, it turned into what you have in front of you, every stitch on show. Throughout, the method was loose and primitive. A drum machine played through speakers and recorded back into the room, pitched down until everything sagged under its own weight. A pump organ cleared out the loft and recorded through a mic on the floor. Valves warming up. A mixing desk worn in over the years. Old machines, old air, and out of them, something new. Like a gift made by hand. If he made it again, it'd never come out the same. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker. Cover photo by Myriam Boulos. RIYL: Prefab Sprout, Throbbing Gristle, Nearly God, Aphex Twin.