Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty, the partnership known as Demdike Stare, have, without a doubt, created some of the most consistently amazing music of the last five years. Lately, we’ve seen the pair experiment with form, structure, and simplicity through a series of Testpressings. The second 12” in the series, released last month on Modern Love, remains as sinister as anything else in the duo’s admirable discography. “Grows Without Bound” occupies up the A-side with monolithic walls of black noise, like Maurizio Bianchi focusing all of his post-genocidal energy on severely stark brush strokes. Through all the darkness, one can barely make out the beat – it’s there, but gasping for as much air as the listener. B-side “Primitive Equations” takes its cues from Photek’s “Ni-Ten-Ichi-Ryu,” a drum-n-bass classic from ’97. A perfect foil to the A-side’s immanent brutality, “Primitive” is all movement and mood, with a propulsive, brittle beat keeping up the track’s inexorable momentum. Both tracks find Whittaker and Canty honing in on specific influences of the expansive sound they have created and inhabited (on equally expansive records). The 12” is way sold out; but stream to your shuddering heart’s content below courtesy of Modern Love.
“DSM” showcases the many individual styles of Brockton’s Van Buren Records
It has been a fruitful 18 months for the Brockton super-collective Van Buren Records. Their two 2021 records, Bad For Press and Black Wall…