Andy Stott

Luxury Problems (Modern Love)

Manchester producer Andy Stott might be an egghead, the sort of buttoned-up auteur concerned with how sound can be stretched or turned around, but third effort Luxury Problems has its priorities straight with its shifting, grayscale noise, sometimes sharpened, siphoned, or chopped off at the neck. The woolly vocal sample that spearheads “Numb” or the compressed, stair-stepping nudge that makes the title track a banger prove Stott’s genius rises from a perturbing deftness, turning indifferent, everyday sound into a singular artistic statement. What a sublime hush of an album. Your iPhone dreams about this music. (Sat., 12:45am, Holy Mountain)

****

This article appears in May 31 • 2013.

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