- The first thing one notices with Andy Stott's 'Nervous EP' is how little of it there is. With both tracks under six minutes, and the A side barely exceeding four, Stott is certainly bucking the trend for long, slowly evolving tracks. Not that either of these evolve quickly over their short time spans.
'Nervous' is Stott's fifth release of no nonsense 4/4 for Manchester's Modern Love, an offshoot of online retailer Boomkat. There is clearly an interest in early Detroit and Berlin techno at work here, particularly in the sharp drums, although unfortunately Stott makes little of these influences. 'Nervous' sets up an immediate drum and bass arrangement, loping at an unhurried tempo, all very straightforward and functional. A shifting, organic squelch flits from left to right as other grey dub shudders drift by, then it's all over. 'She's Gone Wrong' works an offbeat pulse into stuttered gasps of Morse code beside equally nervous and sibilant hats, tapped out just like Underground Resistance. Nothing else hits as hard: there's a pleasing metallic 'ping', a deep rolling 'whoomp' and later some rumbling low-end gloom that could derive from a David Lynch film, but again it's all rather cold and unengaging. One must admire the brevity here but lament the lack of content.
TracklistA Nervous
B She's Gone Wrong