Electronica 'legend' Black Dog has released a new album, the first for a few years. Being a big fan of the band I managed to lever open my purse and hand over some sheckels for it.
First, some history: Black Dog Productions formed in 1989 around Ken Downie, Ed Handley and Andy Turner. They all did their own thing in a sort of musical collective. BDP released Bytes in 1992, Temple of Transparent Balls in 1993, and Spanners in 1994. Handley and Turner left the band in 1995 to concentrate on their Plaid act. Subsequently Downie released Music for Adverts and Short Films (1996), his contract with Warp Records ended, and he floated around the wilderness for a number of years doing some quite strange stuff (haven't heard the William Burroughs concept album, but it sounds interesting...), but never quite living down accusations of being difficult to deal with and a bit of a fruitcake.
And now it's 2005 and Downie has teamed up with Martin and Richard "Dust" of Dust Science Recordings. They're a Sheffield label aspiring to be what Warp where before they 'lost their way', and championing 'northern electronic soul'. Given the emnity that Downie has for Warp, and that 'electronic soul' is a good tag for what he does, it seems like quite a good match (aside from the fact Downie lives in Devon). The result: a string of EPs, and the LP Silenced.
Silenced is a cautious, workman-like album. There's not a lot of flashy bits or mind-boggling weirdness like Downie has made in the past, but it's a very worthy opener for a new phase in Downie's career. The album's highlights are Trojan Horus (it wouldn't be Black Dog without a bit of ancient mediterranean mysticism in there!), Drexian City R.I.D.E, and Remote Viewing. The latter parts of the album have a sort of Enoesque ambient quality that sometimes borders on miserablism, and there's one or two forays into overwrought synth emotionalism that don't do it for me, but I came away feeling like the Black Dog team is on the right track (which is more than can be said for the last few Plaid albums). Hopefully more to come?
Posted by stuart at November 27, 2005 12:21 PM