Andy Stott returns with ‘Faith In Strangers’, his first new album since 2012’s heralded ‘Luxury Problems.’

‘Faith In Strangers’ was written and recorded between January 2013 and June 2014, and was edited and sequenced in late July this year. Making use of on an array of instruments, field recordings, found sounds and vocal treatments.

The first two tracks recorded during these early sessions bookend the release, the opener “Time Away” featuring Euphonium played by Kim Holly Thorpe and last track “Missing” a contribution by Stott’s occasional vocal collaborator Alison Skidmore who also appeared on 2012’s ‘Luxury Problems.’

Between these two points ‘Faith In Strangers’ heads off from the sparse and infected “Violence” to the broken, downcast pop of  “On Oath” and the motorik, driving melancholy of ‘Science & Industry’ – three vocal tracks built around that angular production style that imbues proceedings with both a pioneering spirit and a resonating sense of familiarity.

Things take a sharp turn with “No Surrender”- a sparkling analogue jam making way for a tough, smudged rhythmic assault, while “How It Was” refracts sweaty Warehouse signatures and “Damage” finds the sweet spot between RZA’s classic “Ghost Dog” and Terror Danjah at his most brutal.

‘Faith in Strangers’ is next and offers perhaps the most open track, its vocal hook and chiming melody bound to the rest of the album via the almost inaudible hum of Stott’s mixing desk. It provides a haze of warmth and nostalgia that ties the nine loose joints that make up the LP into the  oddly cohesive of Stott’s career to date, built and rendered in the spirit of those rare albums that straddle through darkness and light, lingering on in the mind like nothing else.

Track Listing

1. Time Away

2. Violence

3. On Oath

4. Science & Industry

5. No Surrender

6. How It Was

7. Damage

8. Faith in Strangers

9. Missing

Modern Love September Tour Dates

9/21/14 Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL

9/23/14 The North Door – Austin, TX

9/24/14 Kenyon College – Gambier, OH

9/25/14 Decibel Festival – Seattle, WA

9/26/14 1015 Folsom – San Francisco, CA

9/27/14 Hollywood Forever Cemetery – Los Angeles, CA