Do not adjust your speakers. There will be sounds emerging from them that would lead you to believe they’re malfunctioning, but fear not: your stereo is now under the spell of a Mancunian witch named Demdike — and it’s happy.
Said bedazzling creature is the joint creation of MLZ’s Miles Whittaker and record nerd (and Finders Keepers label associate) Sean Canty, who have put together an ambient set rooted in Turkish, Iranian, African, and West Indian soundtracks, drone, house, and all manner of things dubwise. We’ve been hearing a lot of dark dub from Bristol (those amazing Tectonic Plates comps!), but this Northern English take is less abstract and more dance-floor friendly.
“Janissary” starts like a Bollywood soundtrack through a heroin haze and ends up hanging out with Aphex Twin at the original Hacienda. Still, the ouija vibe of occult dabbling permeates the project, from the Dr. Who–isms of “Extwistle Hall” to the suitably moody “Haxan Dub.” Bonus points for eschewing the clichés of horror imagery in favor of a modernist cover with a witch that would not be out of place in a Man Ray collage.
