For New Yorkers who couldn’t make it to the Mutek festival in Montreal, we got a pretty damn good consolation prize. On Friday the 11th, The Bunker presented The Caretaker and Demdike Stare at Public Assembly in Williamsburg.
The lineup was scheduled to go on until 6am, so I thought if I showed up around one-ish I’d get to see Leyland James Kirby, aka The Caretaker. You can’t miss him – “Kirbs” has got a ginger colored ‘fro that is looking pretty glam rock lately. Unfortunately when I arrived at 2am, he was already done. Disappointed, I asked him if Demdike Stare was still up, and he said they were next.
Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty were just taking over the table, getting ready for a live set. They’ve been collaborating as Demdike Stare since last year, producing a wild brew of dub, hauntology, and samples from shadowed soundtracks in places like the middle east and West Indes.
Their first track warmed in with belled-up throbbing techno and some spooky rhythm washes.
The second track was more in an Deepchord vein, with spacier synth and dub echoes, yet still much more dancey than the home listening of their full length “Symbiosis”.
By the third track, the beats were pushing a higher tempo, and the dancefloor was certainly tuned up.
Not until the 5th track did I recognize something they already released – “Haxan” from Symbios. Very well played out live!
For a fantastic wrap-up, Sean Canty started dropping vinyl while Miles added effects. What a great show!
As always, if you like what you hear, please support the artists, and make a purchase. You can get Symbiosis at Boomkat here:
