Millie & Andrea – Drop The Vowels

Millie & Andrea - Drop The Vowels

Since Luxury Problems and catching on to the Modern Love imprint, every release is something to look forward to and be excited about. Calling them a staple as of yet might not be right considering their quantity of releases, but when it comes to quality and pushing the boundary a bit further, Modern Love deserves to rank among the gods. 

Stotts name had me sold about two seconds in after the releases got announced and after hearing some of Demdike Stare´s stuff, I knew this release would be frantic and strange in the best way possible. On top of that, Drop The Vowels was a huge first in terms of the listening experience too. As someone who started collecting Vinyl for value of having some great packages, extras and huge artwork, I only decided to really actually play my collection later on. Still it had never occurred that the physical copy was what I listened to first. Normally there is the pre-download of the digital version, pre-existing tracks or a stream one week prior to the release. With Vowels my first glimpse was three small snippets and that was it. Luckily with the mail arriving earlier then the set date, I got the chance to sit down and take it all in – at night and at a nicely banging volume. 

The first sounds hitting with the sample of something Arabic sounding on “GIF RIFF” I had my hopes up for a great mash-up. But sadly, and as many might be expecting after the haunting vocals of Luxury Problems, voices were left out of the mixture this time. Nonetheless, the opener plays as a crazy jungle / basar exercise in stark atmosphere and noise; factory sounds meeting world music percussion if you want to call it that. With that idea ringing out, the meat of Vowels kicks in quickly with “Stay Ugly”: The known noise by the two men at work quickly turns into captivating drum ´n ´bass jitter bug with uplifting synths freshening things up. The track, “Temper Tantrum” falls directly in place, but a tad more brutal and frantic as the previous and the following “Spectral Source” is a more bass heavy and faster variation on banging drums and techno deconstruction. With these first tracks, it becomes clear that the two artists really want build some hurt into electronic music and well, the sure know how to pair noise and groove. “Corrosive” is easily the standout out the bunch, fast, relentless and combining every previous element to a perfect whole. I can´t help but be reminded of the sleeper track on Luxury Problems “Up The Box” on most of Drop The Vowels. Only that there is no giant build to a moment of ecstasy, but much rather the constant dwelling on this feeling. The title track on this on might also be the simplest drum ´n´ bass variation of the bunch, still very energetic, but feeling more like a sketch and not as crafty and with attention to detail as the previous ones. 

But the disappointment remains short, as “Back Down” presents its self as the starting point of a grandiose end. The beloved females vocals pop op on here an after the movement inducing mid, this one is the dance floor depression and horrific turn of events. Think long hallways, echoes, ticking and tattering and a ghost lurking behind you and you´re pretty close to the visual equivalent of this track. After this “Quay” serves as the point of reflection and noisy good-bye from these 46 minutes of obscure energy. You can almost recognize something like the duo packing their things to a synth ridden, almost organ like tune reminiscent of Tim Hecker. This might not be the best individual track, but works well in succession and closer here.

Drop The Vowels may seem as the variation of just one idea to some. Like the artists on Modern Love are known for, it´s the darker and grittier side of electronic and here specifically drum ´n´ bass music. But what Demdike Stare and Andy Stott pull off here is a very enjoyable listen with much longevity. Going back, I always get a new nuance on the tracks and with every listen they become more and more distinguished. And let´s face it, what those two artists are creating stays pretty much unique no matter how they do it. Also judging from the mind set of two similar artists collaborating, those two prove that their ongoing collaboration remains fruitful and above that, that the don´t just throw ideas at each other but blend together very well. Viewing a record like 2012 Instrumental Tourist by Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin, although the individual tracks were great, you seldom got the feeling of a real collab but more of two masterminds adding to each other. Millie and Andrea however work together almost indistinguishable, mostly because they can abstract and develop on their “usual” sound – if something like that exists.

7/10