Demdike Stare - Passion (2018)

Demdike land a new 9-track doublepack for Modern Love; a delirious odyssey from UKG to angular and freakish rhythmic jackers, highly recommended if yr into their Testpressing series or anything from Errorsmith to Príncipe, Dem 2, Jon E Cash, Wiley to Joy Division, DJ Scud, Equiknoxx, Anthony ‘Shake’ Shakir or Bernard Parmegiani...

Since the release of their album Wonderland a couple of years ago, Demdike Stare have been recording material for this new doublepack Passion; an asymmetric re-imagining of UK club styles taking in frenzied drum trax, shortwave jungle, pinging dancehall and clipped, post punk riddims.

During this time they’ve been busy curating their DDS label and have been commissioned by both the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) and the surviving members of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza to mine and rework their archives. Enlisting visual artist Michael England (Autechre, Skam, Leila), they’ve created a cinematic accompaniment for their collaborative live shows, resulting in the image which adorns this cover - a hybrid/composite portrait exploring/questioning the current use of software in creating hyper reality and the manipulation of the self. The accompanying trailer Includes documentary footage filmed at a Voguing event in NYC, Blackpool promenade and a Newark, New Jersey roller rink, smudgng the lines between live performance, documentary and sonic cinema.

Passion continues a process Demdike began on their Testpressing series of dismantling barriers between urban realism and fantasy, between experimental, pop and soundsystem cultures. It’s an outlandish configuration of avant-garde and ultimately functional club weapons designed and honed for the weightiest bassbins, and also their most direct and fuucked up record to date - a raucous, joyful 9-track smash that comes off like a night on a glamorous, neon-lit bender.