Demdike Stare - Elemental (Modern Love) - Professional LP Review

Here is a template for writing a good review.

[Intro – 50-70 words | Include a bit of background information, possibly who produced it, where they were at before this release and if the band are unknown – where they’re from and a couple of influences. This part of the review should mostly include facts.]

Demdike Stare are Sean Whittaker and Miles Canty, although it may be the other way around. They've made several albums, perhaps five or six, consisting of electronic sample-based noise which, over the years, has become very much the kind of music you would not play to your granny, or even your mother, unless she was the 'hip' kind of parent who has never been to Glastonbury and used to be a fan of Throbbing Gristle. Their influences range from the popular 70s TV show, Catweazle to the French librarian Camille Sauvage and Italian horror soundtracks, oh, and Berlin Techno, and...Thomas Savery, 17th/18th century engineer, inventor of an early steam engine, the sound of which the pair frequently sample for special 'industrial' effects.

[Details – 70-120 words | The interesting bit – what’s on it? What does it sound like? How to is compare? Have they evolved or are they pretty much the same? Rate and slate as much as you like – remember: this is supposed to be entertaining. Use exaggerated comparisons, inventive analogies and metaphor to get your point across.]

This double CD consist of 18 tracks, most of which sound like the workings of Victorian machinery mixed with a hoover, someone angrily sorting through their garden shed, a jumbo jet, washing machine, dark Satanic Jeff Mills remixing Wagner, and New Age music for angry neo-hippies who want to feel worse, not better. It's not an evolution, but a continuation of their mission to make tuneless, virtually beatless, droning noise. I rate it highly, but what does that matter to you? I'm not a professional critic; you don't know me, and besides, music criticism is dead. All that remains are countless bloggers filling time instead of doing something useful, like gardening, housework, charity work, or painting walls, which definitely need doing here...you should see the state of them...

[Conclusion – 50-100 words | Just wrap it up really. Never finish a review abruptly because it’s unprofessional. Instead, just to fade it out with some light comments about whether it’s worth listening to or not.] 

So, here's another trip through the forest of evil sounds lead by Demdike Stare. It will evoke an atmosphere akin to being trapped in a 70s Italian horror movie about a steam punk future in which the Devil invents VHS tape which spools out of the player of its own accord, enters the nearest human orifice and turns people into goggle-eyed, blood-soaked worshippers hell-bent on garotting anyone who challenges His authority.