Demdike Stare - Industrial Desert (2010)

Demdike Stare is the collaborative project of Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty. Miles is also known as one half of Pendle Coven who have explored areas of techno and electronic music as diverse as their interests, taking in early-90's style hardcore, drone, Basic-Channelisms, Drexciyan electro and warehouse minimalism along the way. Sean Canty is a member of the respected Finders Keepers crew of vinyl vultures. 

The duo’s collaborative project tracks the sonic ley lines of cult soundtracks, Turkish psych, deconstructed dub reductions, field recordings, plunderphonics and all manner of psychotomimetic ephemera. The project is named after Pendle's most famous witch: Elizabeth Southerns, aka Demdike.

Earlier last month I managed to track down a copy of this rather hard to find disc which was released in October 2010 and features just one track lasting almost an hour. I've since undertaken a fair bit of research to try and find out some track list information but nothing has been forthcoming.

All I've managed to unearth is that the mix contains "arcane folk fed through proto-techno wormholes, to exalted krautrock and the richest jazz, all infected with deep vein drone throbs and spores of mossy ambience".

The music itself is magnificent though and makes up for the lack of individual track structure or band/title information. It shifts constantly between elements of 70's free jazz, Arabic rhythms, industrial noise and crackling ambient inflections without ever sounding forced or random. The 56 minute running time melts away rapidly as each new movement catches hold, plays out and recedes. It is music that has to be listened to in one sitting when you are fully prepared to take an hour out of your life and let the music overtake the room. This might well seem like a big expectation from a release, especially these days but you will be richly rewarded for your investment of time and patience.

If you're unfamiliar with Demdike stare then this release is as good a place to start as any then seek out anything this band has their name on.

Required listening.

Watch an interview with Miles and Sean