Andy Votel

Operating out of Manchester, Andy Votel serves simultaneously as a record label proprietor and a hands-on music producer. During his teenage years he built practical knowledge by frequenting Northern hip-hop venues and working as a warm-up DJ across Manchester bars and clubs. Entering his twenties, Votel’s distinctive sonic constructions secured remix and production assignments alongside Death in Vegas, Lamb, and Badly Drawn Boy (Damon Gough). Together with Gough he launched Twisted Nerve Records. Although each man maintains an independent production career, the label first drew widespread notice in late 2000 through Gough’s earliest released material. Votel’s own debut, the 40-minute mini-album Styles of the Unexpected, arrived in early 2001 on the pair’s imprint and incorporated surf, electronic, hip-hop, and cinematic elements. The follow-up, All Ten Fingers, appeared one year later, yet Votel attracted far greater attention through a sequence of eccentric, concept-driven mix albums: 2003’s Music to Watch Girls Cry, 2005’s Songs in the Key of Death, and 2008’s Brazilika.