Andy Stott

Passed Me By/We Stay Together Modern Love****

This brace of releases from Manchester DJ/producer Andy Stott stood head and shoulders above the pack, chiefly because their creator was heading astutely and assuredly for new terrain. You'd think that techno's futuristic leanings would always involve such a progression, but few have quite satisfied and enthralled as Stott did with Passed Me Byand We Stay Together, now side by side on a timely compilation. It's a set of tracks that is much more than the sum of the widescreen influences that informed Stott's headspace. The producer works with a tempo that is slow enough to be a death march, yet this slow-motion, dirge-like speed amplifies and highlights every echo, sound and fluctuation as Stott finds new ground. Deep, intense, mournful and engrossing – a soundtrack for the day after the end of the world. See modern-love.co.uk

Download: New Ground, Posers, We Stay Together (Part 2)