Collin, Jon & Demdike Stare: Fragments of Nothing LP

Demdike Stare’s immersive set of windswept, strung out blues made in collab with Jon Collin finally makes it to vinyl after a small run of tapes back in 2020 that sold out in a hot minute.  We reckon it’s some of Demdike’s most compelling work; a highly evocative suite of low-lit sonic tapestries like some Coil x Ry Cooder collab that never was. Teasing out vintage, arcane threads of connection between deep-South porchside styles and their native industrial blooz, Demdike sound at their most red-eyed and pensive in this strung out, liminal mode, spinning Jon Collin’s expressive guitar licks into acres of cranky, ghostly space to offer a starker and more blunted perspective on his dusky panoramic scenery. The duo draw on a deep well of inspiration from the rugged beauty of the Pennine landscape to invoke a steeply immersive style of folk-blues abstraction. Across two sides they rustle a ragged, whiskey soaked and blurred tapestry of ideas, variously recalling darker echoes Loren Mazzacane Connors and even Stephen O’Malley solo sides across the 45 minutes of their spirit-guiding trek. Pick your poison - mushies, peyote, banana skins, whatever’s to hand - and saddle up.