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CRITIC REVIEWS
91
It’s an album that confirms Stott has been slowly building a platform and not a wall, raising himself above the murk to a midpoint where spotlight and shadow meet. It’s an exciting step forward for an artist who could easily have been content to hang back.
90
Even at its darkest and furthest out, Faith In Strangers is as warm and engaging as albums that make standard inroads to listeners' hearts.
90
What Faith in Strangers does do is confirm Stott's position as one of the most stirring and explorative producers going.
84
The separate moments are astounding, evidence of a musician who has managed to remain inquisitive even as he’s established his signature.
83
Stott looks patiently inside whirring machines and pulls out their constructed heartbeats; Faith in Strangers is simultaneously a machine and movement, a noun and a verb.
83
There is a starkness to Stott’s work, but there is an unusual sort of beauty to it as well.
80
Despite a radical switch from digital to analog gear, the album is as bleak and as bracing as Luxury Problems. Stott coaxes his harshest and gentlest sounds yet, sometimes within the same track.
80
The album is another leap forward for the producer, refining his sense of songcraft and expanding his instrumental palette without sanding down his rough edges in the slightest.
80
Faith In Strangers amplifies human interaction with the elements and the fractured nature of our relationship with them; this might not be the most joyful depiction, but it has been impeccably well documented here.
80
Most of Faith in Strangers is a groove machine, albeit a despondent and sometimes hostile one.
80
Stott’s is a world that creeps and crawls, united by a sense of dread that can take several spins to fully unpack.
80
Instead of continuing their exploration of Problems‘ more meditative planes, here Stott and Skidmore delve back into the depths, mining mantle-crumbling beats engorged with dread and cautious beauty.
60
Silence and space are savored even when the tempo ratchets up. But human tenderness still illuminates these tracks at their darkest
Andy Stott is known for his outstanding dub-techno/ambient efforts delivered greatly in past EPs and in his excellent 2012 full lenght album Luxury Problems, that delved in deep cavernous and icy territory, using lush synths and large, intense production. In his sophomore record, Faith in Strangers, Andy explores a little bit further into these strange and beautiful soundscapes, coming up with a rather great follow up to Luxury Problems, reaching out even more with his sonority. This is an ... read more
The urban primitivism is omnipresent and predominant and is breathing through the electric holes of desperation.
Come closer!
Come closer!
Finally heard this. It is incredible--probably my favorite electronic album since Nils Frahm's Spaces or Jon Hopkins' Immunity.
Though I haven’t checked into many of Andy Stott’s earlier material, Faith in Strangers delivered an atmospheric, refreshing, and satisfying listening experience that overall draws me into him as an electronic musician. It’s the finest example of balancing ambience with danceable dub beats that accompany its distorted vocals. It’s not complex enough to consider an acquired taste, however, it certainly calls for listeners willing to devote their all-out attention; ... read more
stereogum.com
New Track: Andy Stott – “Versi” 
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Track List
- Time Away
- Violence
- On Oath
- Science & Industry
- No Surrender
- How It Was
- Damage
- Faith in Strangers
- Missing
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Added on: September 22, 2014