Testpressing

Searing, tormented darkside f**kery from Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty’s Demdike Stare on their rinse and run Testpressing series. On the A-side ‘Fail’ is a slowly descending panic attack of pealing hi-end frequencies and impending bass doom reaching a pit of noisy no return. On the flip, ‘Null Results’ bruks loose with a scything jungle attack; frantic 16th note hi-hats and cone-crumpling subs laced with a rudeboy mentasm to incite warehouse capoeira. Come test.

Fail

Null Results

 7 months on from TP#4, Demdike return with the 5th instalment in their ongoing research and development series - a double-headed monster split between gnarly reductions on the A-side, and industrial strength edits on the flip. ‘Procrastination’ edges through Grimey detritus and gunshot snares within a vast open space perfectly primed for that Demdike slow build. ‘Past Majesty’ on the flip offers up a feral take on some kind of cyber-industrial insanity, somewhere between Ministry and Powell - with a denouement which should probably come with a public health warning attached to it. All we’re saying is - watch yr eardrums.

Past Majesty

Procrastination

Demdike Stare return to the lab with two extended new productions, inaugurating a series of untamed releases brought together under the Testpressing banner. 'Collision' was recorded in late 2012 and is pretty much unlike anything you'll have heard from Demdike before, an intense high-frequency re-arrangement of Jungle and Noise, like a more brutal variant of the Demdike-affiliated HATE project, fed through a bank of analogue boxes and pedals, left to spin uncontrollably for 10 minutes before fading to black. 'Misappropriation' on the flip feeds off a different noise altogether, perched precariously between the mangled percussion you'd most commonly associate with Muslimgauze and the metallic clank of industry, a proper sunstroke riddim: angry and unforgiving.

Collision

Misappropriation

So here we are at part two in the series : "Grows Without Bound" on the A-side is a monster; a noisy analogue session ressurected from the burning embers of Industrial and Noise, harnessed into an unstable growl that slowly makes room for a barely-there percussive stumble - think somewhere between Vainio and Nate Young. Over on the flipside "Primitive Equations" takes for inspiration the bare-boned, hyper-tense production of Photek's still devastating "Ni - Ten - Ichi - Ryu",  slugging out feral, steely noise and 'ardcore torque forged by calloused hands and burning minds to cruel, propulsive effect.

Grows Without Bound 1

Primitive Equations 1

Proceeding missions into the no-mans-land of noise and jungle, Demdike Stare adopt a typically schizoid stance at House and Techno tempos on the 3rd Testpressing. Their A-side 'Eulogy' is a square bass devotional to the soul of deep Chicago and Detroit house, most notably the magic of Mr Fingers and Terrence Dixon. A constantly morphing, Escher-like bassline folds in and out of itself, accented with offset kicks and washed out with effervescent, barely-there synth strokes. It's lip-smacking sunset/sunrise gear and a perfect set-up for the flipside shocker. Destined to become a classic in Demdike's canon, 'Dyslogy' comes off like an early 'Waveform Transmission' or H&M bomb spanked by Anthony Shakir; an evil, droning intro ratchets the tension for martial kicks and darkcore chords before a feral breakbeat romps loose like the spirit of '93 unchained. They really don't make 'em like this any more…

Testpressing

ChrisGvd