Millie & Andrea: Drop The Vowels (Miles & Andy Stott) Vinyl 2LP

Dark and brooding breakbeat infused dub techno bomb! Demdike Stare's Miles Whittaker and Andy Stott, two of Modern Love's stalwart producers, return to their Millie & Andrea project. It's a collaboration that has seen the duo explore things like house and juke over the course 5 12"s released between 2008 and 2010. Millie & Andrea seems to have existed as an escape for the two producers of dark, dubby techno. It's been dormant for the past 4 years, but that all changed with the release of their "Stage 2" on Daphne earlier this year. As much as that 12" and this release's title might have you assuming it's an album of trap beats, Millie & Andrea may have pulled a bait and switch on you. Drop The Vowels travels through many sonic doors, taking in bits of dub techno, noise, breakbeats along the way. The duo are experts at mining texture for all it's worth. The palate at play is unmistakably their's, but they manage to turnout tracks that are outside of their usual oeuvre. Perhaps you'll see it in the suffocating synth line of "Stay Ugly" or the forward rhythms of "Spectral Source." While most of their material is quite visceral what Stott and Whittaker have here is real body moving music. I'd love to hear this on a big system. Check out the break on "Corrosive," and the clanging chaos of "Temper Tantrum" for some of the best of what the duo has to offer.

• music label: Modern Love 2014

reviewed by Joey Coco 04/2014