Andy Stott proves once again that electronic music is art!

[Functional]

Seriously. He is the musical genius of today and the new album, "Too Many Voices", is the proof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3KE-_wkiCc

[Daags]

yup, he's consistently top tier.

[Functional]

yup, he's consistently top tier.

Though we should not forget about Alison Skidmore, the vocalist behind the... vocals!

It actually does make me wonder, why they decided to do it like this. I mean, why not just have a project under a new name and contribute it to both? Even if Andy Stott did most of the work, I would still personally favor to present both as the people behind the project.

But I guess it has to do with difficulties that they are working over the internet and might not be able to appear both consistently. And in addition, doing that stuff live would be pretty hard for Skidmore. I'm currently in a project which is partly inspired by Andy Stott and we constantly face "problems" in regards that vocals need to be performed live as well. I think our solution in the end will be that we will have versions of same songs, one being oriented for live and one for production. Or have songs that will work for live while others that won't. Don't know yet.

And here is another favorite from that album.

Those funny sounding vocals kind of make me think as being the "drum track" for this song, because they give the rhythmic context here. I think that's just brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3WdNAbVU44

[dayjob]

^^^ that song reminds me of "sail away sail away sail away..." i keep waiting to hear it come in at some point.

shrug.

[Numanoid]

Seriously. He is the musical genius of today

You shouldn't happen to be Andy Stott should you?

[do_androids_dream]

Pleasant enough. Not sure what's genius about it though? All very familiar sounds/arrangement etc.

[Functional]

Seriously. He is the musical genius of today

You shouldn't happen to be Andy Stott should you?

What makes you think that? Though the answer is no, as should be obvious. I doubt he really needs to promote himself, given that he has so much coverage in Pitchfork (for example). In fact, Faith In Strangers album was 45th best album of 2014 in Pitchfork. Below is a good example of why:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXVTTQhup6M

^^^ that song reminds me of "sail away sail away sail away..." i keep waiting to hear it come in at some point.

shrug.

That song by Enya? Because actually now that you mention it, it does kind of remind me of it indeed!

[Functional]

Pleasant enough. Not sure what's genius about it though? All very familiar sounds/arrangement etc.

It's a good question. I think that with the whole recontextualization thing, Andy is up there in the league. I personally haven't heard anyone be able to do those tricks with vocals and make whole arrangements work with such simple ideas. This obviously can be simply my lack of information, but I am skeptical as this type of music (if one can categorize it in any meaningful way) is what I often am seeking after. Especially in terms of how vocals are being processed & arranged.

[VariKusBrainZ]

Pleasant enough. Not sure what's genius about it though? All very familiar sounds/arrangement etc.

I'm with you on this, nice tune but I'm missing the genius aspect.

The bottom end is very muddy with almost unpleasant distortion that melts the bottom end together in a bad way, but Ill blame YouTube for that.

[dayjob]

^^^ that song reminds me of "sail away sail away sail away..." i keep waiting to hear it come in at some point.

shrug.

That song by Enya? Because actually now that you mention it, it does kind of remind me of it indeed!

yeah.. enya. it's what i hear when i listen to "Too Many Voices". seems like it could slip into the mix so easily.

i don't rate pitchfork btw.. i think it's pretty lame and ridiculous when it comes to its ratings. i could just be too old at 44 to think i can relate to any of the stuff they rave about.

but whatever.. art is subjective. if you like it then it's good. that's that.

andy stott is pleasant enough but it's not what i'd call innovative or fresh. 808ish sounds over driven, a loose feel, some vocals. if it says what he wants to say though then i guess it's successful in that regard. doesn't really move me but maybe in a different mood it would fit better.

[stillshaded]

wow what ground breaking art.. 808s and vocal samples.. how does he do it? multiband compression???

[Functional]

wow what ground breaking art.. 808s and vocal samples.. how does he do it? multiband compression???

It's actually funny, but I don't think he uses 808 at all. I somehow remember that he uses 909, but can't now remember from where. I know he had machinedrum, but not long ago he was asking somewhere if anyone wants it. And yeah, most music out there can be described among similar terms, so you should really avoid that route. I.e. "some choirs, some quintets and a grand piano, wow, how can they do it?"

I think his music does have more characteristics than that, as would any of the orchestras (versus being defined only by their sections).

yeah.. enya. it's what i hear when i listen to "Too Many Voices". seems like it could slip into the mix so easily.

i don't rate pitchfork btw.. i think it's pretty lame and ridiculous when it comes to its ratings. i could just be too old at 44 to think i can relate to any of the stuff they rave about.

but whatever.. art is subjective. if you like it then it's good. that's that.

andy stott is pleasant enough but it's not what i'd call innovative or fresh. 808ish sounds over driven, a loose feel, some vocals. if it says what he wants to say though then i guess it's successful in that regard. doesn't really move me but maybe in a different mood it would fit better.

The post was sort of made tongue-in-cheek. I do really like his music and I do think he is indeed genius, but fully knowing that probably that appreciation is not shared by everyone (which is entirely fine!). But I'm quite interested in what the folk have here to say about him and surely one cannot get more critical responses than to present something here as genius!

Regarding pitchfork media, I don't actually care much for it either, nor any other outlet that reviews music or covers music related news. But my point was that solely for that reason, I highly doubt that he would actually have to come here and try to market his own music.