- A sprawling survey of the Demdike Stare universe.
- When Resident Advisor recently reflected on the high points of 2018, we described Demdike Stare's Passion as an album that "threw time and culture in the blender… forging connections between styles that make no chronological sense but work within their own strange logic." One might argue that, for all of the bruising peaks on that album, Sean Canty and Miles Whittaker's true blending of history occurred on the release that followed shortly after. Stitch By Stitch is a massive four-cassette mix that turns time into pudding. The tapes—called, in order, Stem, Chain, Seed and Back—show the duo's encyclopedic knowledge and ludicrously deep crates, as well as their singular way of tying it all together. Near impossible to absorb in a single sitting, Stitch By Stitch is by turns exhilarating, immersive and exhaustive.
There may also be an hour of new Demdike Stare dread tucked into Stitch By Stitch, which at last twines together the two distinct yet oddly parallel paths the duo have taken over the years. On the one hand, the horror-movie ambience that defined the group when they emerged in 2009. On the other, the bracing, hardcore continuum-centered tracks they began dropping in 2013 with the Testpressing series. Their last two albums, Wonderland and Passion, hewed towards the latter. But eight cassette sides give ample room for Canty and Whittaker's musical interests: dizzying jungle, euphoric 2-step and what sounds like icy grime—actually Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian—to name a few found on Stem's A-side.
But trainspotting every sliver soon becomes a fool's errand, which is a shame when you find yourself desperately trying to source, say, the track with the tinny female vocals and foreboding bells midway through Chain's A-side. Along the way, one can find Annette Peacock, Haruomi Hosono, Antipop Consortium, Anthony Shakir and Cody ChestnuTT strewn about. But just as likely, you will find yourself faced with the ineffable and the unknown. Canty and Whittaker have a knack for alternating between the pastoral and nightmarish, between exquisite, body-dissolving drifts and the sense of getting hacked to pieces on the set of Suspiria. For those who manage to find it—all four tapes were quickly snatched up upon release—Stitch By Stitch will make for quite a trip.
TracklistStem
A Untitled
B Untitled
Chain
A Untitled
B Untitled
Seed
A Untitled
B Untitled
Back
A Untitled
B Untitled