November 2019 was the last project release from Manchester electronic artist Andy Stott, the dub techno present on this record was described by Pitchfork as taking the listener “deep into the catacombs to explore a vision of club music at its most damaged.” It is with 2021 that the adventurous producer provides his next project outing, named ‘Never The Right Time’, a fitting title for the circumstances of the atmospheric club-ready music Andy is setting out to create. The album arrives as a hopeful reminder of a pre-pandemic world, moving away from the colder techno sound and progressing further into a warm ambient direction, a style he has been encroaching into more as his career progresses.

The album is out on Modern Love, a label Andy has been releasing music on since as early as 2005 towards the start of his career. The nine-track affair spanning 40 minutes in duration provides the listener with a mixture of late-night techno club songs intertwined with ambient records influenced by the likes of UK bass and future garage genres. Andy also enlists a frequent collaborator and long-time family friend Alison Skidmore for the album. Featuring on five tracks including the single ‘The beginning’, his old piano teacher was one of Andy’s first journey into using vocals in his work.

Physicals for the album are available coloured/black vinyl (mastered by Rashad Becker) and CD, all with limited availability on Bookmat. The retailer also describes the songs on the album as “desolate, melancholy, defiant, beautiful – often all at once”, adding to “a run of releases that gradually untangled complex ideas into a singular, chaotic body of work”. This is Andy’s fifth LP, with no signs of slowing down the pace of his expressionist and innovative nature in this body of work. Listen to the album today below.