Passed Me By

With seven tracks, the 2011 EP Passed Me By from Manchester’s Andy Stott plays more like a mini-album. The intro, “Signature,” starts with the murkiest of beats and a scratchy ambience sounding like an underwater performance. Dubbed “death disco” in the U.K. and “witch house” on the West Coast, Stott’s aptly titled “New Ground” taps into the slowed pulse of dirge-heavy techno. Pitched-down beats drowning in reverb gurgle as a lonely female voice mournfully sings over the pitted textures and crumbling static of a war-ravaged soundscape. It’s only toward the song’s end that a skittering hi-hat offers hope of new life. “North to South” moves on a cloudy beat as suffocating synthesizers gasp for air and warbling chimes resonate in the distance like cracked bells. With sinister chanting looped over a funeral procession of exhausted beats, “Execution” is the darkest track of the lot. But even as Stott keeps these rhythms and textures trapped under ice, each composition offers a glimmer of life and a prospect for growth, akin to a flower blooming from decay.