Max D and Demdike Stare come together for three tracks of drum wizardry that have the power to change the way you think about rhythm.
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Max D's releases as Dolo Percussion are as visceral as they are minimalist. His tracks under the name, all of which are simply titled "DOLO," offer an instructive look at the beauty and range of percussion. A specific timbre or rhythm or bpm can suggest a different style—from techno to go-go, Latin freestyle to reggae—and part of the joy is in feeling the weight of a beat's many constituent parts. Simple qualities like pitch and volume become a greater fixation, and the presence of reverb has massive repercussions. More than any other music he's made, the Dolo Percussion tracks hit hard. This is zero-frills music that reignites a love for sound itself.
It's no surprise that this thoughtful approach appeals to Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty, who work together as Demdike Stare to create eerie strains of body music. The dubby, dark ambience they explored back on 2010's Forest of Evil has the same patient sense of unfolding as their woozy 2022 mixtape The Call, which was rife with 2-step scorchers. Both Demdike Stare and Dolo Percussion's music feel like sonic research in the best possible way—as conduits for deeper appreciation.
DOLO DS, the second in DDS' new series of white-label 12-inches, finds the two acts coming together on three tracks of tactile breakbeat distillations. "DS DOLO EDIT 1" takes the rolling snares of "DOLO 12" and makes them grander, with a greater sense of propulsion on every strike. As it progresses, the splash-like sound and vocal sample from "DOLO 4" arrive, lending Dolo Percussion a new sense of narrative.
Demdike Stare transform these straight-ahead Dolo Percussion cuts into dizzying spectacles, all without losing the drum-forward nature of the originals. In the past, the duo would treat drums as a component of a larger sound collage ("Desert Ascetic") or as the driving force in an energising jungle track ("Collision"). Here, the inherent DJ tool-ish quality remains. This ability to sense the power of every note is especially felt on "DOLO DS 1," which begins with a fractured beat slowly layered with musical accoutrements. You feel the rustle of the low end, the seductive tone of the sampled breaths, the ghastly synth pad that blankets the entire track. I was reminded of Dego's heady broken beat classic "Dumped Funk," whose repeating snares shift into a flitting UK garage rhythm. While "DOLO DS 1" doesn't undergo such a dramatic evolution, there's a similar magic, where beat evolves without doing much at all.
"DOLO DS 2" closes out the EP on a quieter note, with a warping beat that finds a midpoint between IDM trickery and downtempo bliss. It's an amusing trick—the semblance of something relaxing, but constantly ruptured by whirring synths. Of the 12-inch's three tracks, "DOLO DS 2" is the laser drum-focused—but every part takes on a percussive role, from the dubby flourishes to the creeping bassline. It recalls "DOLO 14" but with a lurching trip-hop demeanour. Like the 12-inch at large, it's a thrilling showcase of mutated genre synthesis, one element at a time.