Merciless [digipak]

This is Manchester-based Andy Stott's debut full-length release on the Modern Love label. Andy Stott's ascent has been astonishingly quick and gained early momentum as his unique combination of crisp beats and fragile melodies combined to mint a sound that was informed by a spectrum of styles, yet remained charmingly idiosyncratic in execution. Put together with a delineated narrative, Merciless clocks in at a little over forty minutes -- and in doing so harks back to the days of classic vinyl LPs where an album could be readily consumed in one sitting. Opening through a cold-water batch of sprawling strings, Merciless kicks off with "Florence" -- wherein a widescreen vista is brought down to piquant levels of detail as thundering piano juxtaposes perfectly with a compacted batch of tech-fingered beats. From here we're taken on a messy journey through a twilight landscape, as the powdery rhythms of "Edyocat" give way to "Choke" and its take on dubstep, before "Hi-Rise" lightens the mood through some carbonated beats and analog melodies. The album's title track is a beautiful piano smudge -- wherein a deceptively simple melody extends with filigree grace to a sonic peak that is neither forced nor overwhelming. Elsewhere, the phone-intro of "Boutique" provides a natural break in the record as the lurching rhythm takes hold of the cranium and refuses to yield. "Blocked" is a furnace blast of blanched dubstep, whilst "Come To Me" takes a cavernous approach which allows the skittering beats to etch deep within the psyche. Closing with a towering strings 'n' piano interpretation of Claro Intelecto's "Peace Of Mind," Andy Stott has consummately proven that mercy is a mightily overrated commodity.