ANDY STOTT at Black Box Theatre, Saturday, March 16. Rating: NNNN
Andy Stott’s Luxury Problems was one of the best electronic albums of 2012, but it wasn’t exactly the type of record that you put on and danced to. Consisting of eight tracks of dark, atmospheric techno, featuring the looped vocals of the U.K. producer’s former piano teacher Alison Skidmore, it was an album best enjoyed on an expensive pair of headphones.
If there were any worries about his claustrophobic, sometimes dissonant, sounds translating to a live setting, they were quickly dispelled when he took to the stage before a crowded floor. Preferring to let the video screen occasionally displaying his name serve as an introduction instead of speaking, Stott’s set retained the intensity of his recorded output, while upping the BPMs slightly.
He kept heads nodding well past 2 am, making the room feel more like a Manchester warehouse party than a Toronto basement.