Millie & Andrea

Drop The Vowels (Modern Love)
16/20

Releasing under their collaborative female pseudonym since 2008, Andy Stott and Miles Whittaker of Demdike Stare’s string of production together had always been a place to abandon the austerity of their individual projects for hedonistic dance-floor constructions, be it gritty, adrenalised drum and bass or delirious pitched down trap. Sitting somewhere between their darker, dub dappled sounds and something more visceral is Drop The Vowels, the long awaited debut album from the Modern Love associates.

While it seems arbitrary to call this album a bit of ‘light hearted fun’, with its blistering breaks and patches of fizzling sound, Drop The Vowels serves as a perfect introduction to the pair’s dizzying, more gleeful vices. Opener GIF RUFF’s gamelan-style drumming segues into echoed, woody percussion, while Stay Ugly’s scathing, scratching sounds are left suspended in mid-air by un- expected Jai Paul-esque chords. The arresting Corrosive feels like a definite highlight here, swirling rapidly out of control then blasted to pieces with its heady behemoth of tittering trap and thick smoggy breaks.

Drop The Vowels is an LP that harks back to the golden era of jungle and hardcore; early Metalheadz, Reinforced Records, Moving Shadow, Photek, all dusted off with modern synth work and touches of house, techno and trap as each track swerves rapidly into unexpected realms. Closing track Quay is an emotive composition of field recordings, all burnt and frayed beyond recognition into beautifully decaying embers, showcasing two producers working together in their absolute prime.

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Words: Anna Tehabsim