THE BLACK DOG
Liber Dogma
SOMACD92
Soma Recordings 2011
13 Tracks. 58mins05secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

In recent years, The Black Dog have tipped the balance which had defined pretty much all their work in the last decade, progressively abandoning the dance floor to focus increasingly on atmospheric and ambient forms. While Further Vexations (2009) still bore a healthy dose of techno influences, the trio of Ken Downie and Martin and Richard Dust had devoted the last three tracks of the album to much more atmospheric, beat-less, pieces. It is however with its follow-up, Music For Real Airports (2010), which aimed at creating a sonic environment from sounds sourced in and around various airports, and their recent series of collaborative efforts with former member of Dutch entity Psychic Warriors Ov Gaia as Dadavistic Orchestra, that they fully immersed themselves into deeply ambient and textural recordings, leaving any trace of danceable groove far behind them.

Compared to the rich soundscapes which formed most of the ambient structures of Further Vexation, Music For Real Airports and Dokument.01 and .02, Liber Dogma represents a radical shift toward dry minimalism, where the beat is pushed to the fore, served by pulsating bass lines and only a sprinkle of additional sounds for each piece. Closer by nature to Berlin’s minimal and hypnotic techno than to Detroit’s more luxurious sound, Liber Dogma has been devised with one aim and one aim only: the dance floor. Dark Wave Creeping and The Death Ov The Black Sun kick off the proceedings in relative subdued mood, harking back to classic mid-nineties Black Dog era, but the latter displays much darker overtones, and its overall structure is more stripped down already, introducing the more sombre tones to come.

From there on, The Black Dog metamorphoses into a dark beast indeed, with pieces such as Drop Kick Kali, The Black Maria, Silent Escape or the aptly titled Worship The Drum functioning with virtually no natural air, caught in an oppressive and retrained set of linear grooves and see-through melodies. As the album progresses, it feels as if The Black Dog is pushing deeper into the labyrinth of rooms of a subterranean club, each new room darker, murkier and sweatier than the one before. With Single Light Focus, Silent Escape, Hyper Knot 7 and Bird Siren, they reach the heart of this cavernous world, its desolate core served by hypnotic grooves and robotic patterns, and if Feeder Rub Out slows the whole machine down for a moment and provides some breathing space, the two concluding pieces reasserts the resolutely techno identity of this record with aplomb.

After twenty-or-so year, The Black Dog remains as feverishly relevant today as it was back in the early nineties. While Downie and the Dust brothers have undeniably moved on with the times and taught the old dog a wide range of new tricks, they have remained faithful to their techno heritage, and if there was ever any doubt of that, Liber Dogma is proof that they still had much to say.

4.7/5

The Black Dog | Soma Recordings
Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

DADAVISTIC ORCHESTRA
Dokument.02
FORM003
Dust Science 2011
06 Tracks. 65mins35secs

Amazon UK: CD US: CD Boomkat: CD | DLD

The meeting of two legendary techno acts, who have contributed to shape the European techno scene of the last twenty years, Dadavistic Orchestra has everything of a heavyweight entity, with on one side Sheffield-based The Black Dog and on the other three former members of Dutch outfit Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia. While their respective techno credentials have been widely documented, both formations have always balanced this with extensive incursions into much more ambient territories, and this is very much the angle they have adopted for this common project.

Six months on from their debut release, Dokument.02 investigates once again sprawling ambient soundscapes, from the Machinefabriek-infused progressive granular guitar drones  of opening piece Deep Old Mu, to the heavy textures of Teh Meh, Teh Meh and De Neerstorting Van De Mening Van De Kathderaal or the much more delicate dreamy sequences of Unconcerned, But Not Indifferent. With each new track, the formation defines an entirely new sonic universe, perfectly conditioned to work according to its own rules, in total isolation from the rest of the album. Yet, whilst there is, in appearance, very little linking the six tracks collected here, Dokument.02 actually feels extremely consistent all the way through, with each track telling only part of the overall story.

Digging deep into the history book of electronic music, from the austere minimalism of musique concrète and the ambitious experimentations of the early German pioneers to the Detroit of the late eighties and contemporary exploratory sound processing, and without a beat in sight, Dadavistic Orchestra create here a particularly rich and effective soundtrack, built around deeply atmospheric soundscapes which are in turn processed into impressive textural pieces and adorned with varying degrees of melodic structure. At one end of the scale, Teh Meh, Teh Meh is almost entirely devoid of musical elements and relies instead on vast sonic spaces, expanded further with bottomless reverbs. Subjected to wave after wave of noise, it rapidly becomes hopeless to try and identify any of the components thrown into the mix. Later on, De Neerstorting Van De Mening Van De Kathderaal appears to develop from a similar process, but the scope is much more restrained here, and while noise form the bulk of the original set up of the piece, it is later on supplanted by a fragment of melody locked into a slow hypnotic loop. On opening track Deep Old Mu, DO opt for series of heavily processed progressive drones and pulsating bleeps and electronics. At the other end of the scale, DO assemble more hypnotic structures, from the kaleidoscopic arpeggio which radiates through the first half of Petrichore and the pastoral chords which populates its second half to the successive loose dreamy sequences that make up Unconcerned, But Not Indifferent.

At times reminiscent of The Black Dog’s recent Music For Real Airports, especially in the way environmental noises and sounds are used to build up a stark sound map, Dokument.02 is a stunning atmospheric collection, which continuously changes in tone and structure, yet appears impeccably consistent from beginning to end. This is due in no small part to the vast experience in creating extremely effective atmospheric electronic music shared by the six musicians involved. Deeply hypnotic and immersive, Dokument.02 is quite simply a masterpiece.

5/5

Dadavistic Orchestra | The Black Dog | Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia (MySpace) | Dust Science Recordings
Amazon UK: CD US: CD Boomkat: CD | DLD

DADAVISTIC ORCHESTRA
Dokument.01
DUSTV024
Dust Science Recordings 2011
02 Tracks. 22mins12secs
Format: 12″

Amazon UK: DLD US: DLD Boomkat: 12″ | DLD iTunes: DLD

From the Dust Science labs comes this slice of breathtaking ambient, concocted by members of two of the most intriguing and refined techno acts of the last twenty years. Formed of Ken Downie and brothers Martin and Richard Dust, known collectively as The Black Dog, and former members of seminal Dutch outfit Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia Tim Freeman, Arbe and Robbert Heijnen, Dadavistic Orchestra became an entity over the last year, but The Black Dog and PWOG have long shared a similar vision by blending together elements of techno and ambient.

For their first output, the six-headed Dadaist ensemble has collected two stunning ambient pieces, each clocking at around eleven minutes. Firmly anchored in contemporary atmospheric electronica, complete with just a hint of modern classical, Strung Valve Checkout focuses on a series of piano sequences which are purposely distressed, stretched, filtered and dubbed into a highly polished drone-like structure, which is itself subject to constant changes in tone and form. At times reminiscent of The Black Dog’s recent Music For Real Airports project in the way the atmospheric landscape is forever refined and contextualised, this is as elegant a piece of electronic music as one could expect from this collective.

Harking back to mid-nineties lush organic ambient which formed part of PWOG’s usual set-up, Dada Fish Sticks is quite a different offering. Occasionally recalling the vast topographic soundscapes of Biosphere, but with an ethic which can be traced back to the cosmic meanderings of early Tangerine Dreams, this piece is much more vaporous and ethereal. There is no melody as such here, but a succession of looped chords upon which blows an arctic wind, its intensity ebbing and flowing with insistent regularity. Unlike its predecessor, this piece doesn’t call so much on emotional characteristic, but instead builds on its inherent abstraction to reveal a dream world which only appears to be connected to reality by the distant sound of alarm bells (an ambulance perhaps, or a level crossing danger signal).

The first of at least three releases to see the light, Dokument.01 is a totally fascinating release, steeped in tradition, yet sounding contemporary and fresh, it is a testament to the combined creative forces behind Dadavistic Orchestra. Released in very limited quantity (300 copies pressed on heavy 180 gram red vinyl), this EP is utterly essential.

4.8/5

Dadavistic Orchestra | The Black Dog | Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia (MySpace) | Dust Science Recordings
Amazon UK: DLD US: DLD Boomkat: 12″ | DLD iTunes: DLD

THE BLACK DOG
Music For Real Airports
SOMATBD003
Soma Recordings 2010
14 Tracks. 58mins51secs

Amazon UK: CD US: CD

Airports are funny places; hubs of intense activity, their cold and chaotic order is bound by contradicting sentiments of excitement, frustration, boredom, joy, exhaustion, anticipation, sadness; passengers caught in endless security queues, rushing through duty free shops or perpetually awaiting in concourses and lounges. All this forms the basis for Music For Real Airports, a collaborative project for art galleries soundtracked by The Black Dog, with visual media created by design studio Human, due to be premiered at La Sensoria festival in Sheffield later on this month. The Black Dog collected over two hundred hours of field recordings in various airports while on tour. These were then incorporated into lush atmospheric constructions to render the experience of passing through these thoroughly inhuman bustling nests of modern life.

Unlike Brian Eno’s seminal 1978 work Music For Airports, which was conceived as a soothing four part textural ambient piece destined to be used by airport authorities, the music collected here by Ken Downie and brothers Martin and Richard Dust, although ambient in nature, doesn’t seek to be used in airports, but rather brings a multitude of sonic elements of airport life into the work. The album itself, like many of the Black Dog’s records, has a very clear narrative structure, giving a panoramic view of interactions involved with air travelling, starting with the journey to the airport (M1), reaching the terminal, going through check in and security(DISinformation Desk, Passport Control, Wait Behind This Line), waiting in lounges, facing delays, suffering sleep deprivation, and eventually reaching the other side (Businness Car Park 9). The music, like most modern airports, is extremely polished and well-ordered on the outside, but deep below the smooth surfaces hide a host of often almost imperceptible activity, cast into micro-beats, hyperactive electronics, hums, noises and haunting textures. At times, crowd noises and announcements break the cold and relentless progression of the record, as to remind the listener of its purpose, but all too soon, it is back to highly processed textures.

There is one obvious nudge to Eno’s Music For Airports on Delay 9 as a slow moving piano line, wrapped in reverb, echoes at various intervals, but, instead of being the centrepiece, the music is here part and parcel of the background buzz and captured as such, amongst crowd noises, threatening hums and, toward the end, the insistent beeping of a phone line gone dead. The soothing melody, unnoticed through the hustle and bustle, losing its meaning. Despite its ambient nature, Music For Real Airports is not a peaceful record, feeding both on the concentrated urban character of airports and on their extreme emotional impact. The soundscapes assembled by the trio are particularly dense and intricate, and appear to change focus almost constantly. Often, two or more distinct sound sources can be found side by side, quite unrelated, yet brought together by one common factor.

While it shares a lot of common features with its predecessors, Music For Real Airports is quite a radical departure for The Black Dog as they move away from the elegant techno that usually serves as backbone to their work to focus entirely on atmospheric forms. Ambient has always been an integrant part of the band’s music, but it is the first time that it has taken such a dominant place. It is difficult to gauge the full scope of the project with the visual part of it missing, but the soundtrack to the installation actually works superbly well as a stand-alone piece. The music flows elegantly from one end of the record to the other, each track linked to the one before it yet utterly unique, creating one of the band’s most absorbing work to date.

4.8/5

The Black Dog | Music For Real Airports | Human Studio | Soma Recordings
Amazon UK: CD US: CD

The noughties have seen probably the most radical changes in the music industries since the advent of the record. Consumption habits have dramatically moved from traditional to digital formats, music has been increasingly seen as something to steal rather than to buy, and listening habits means that nowadays, the album is becoming increasingly redundant. Or is it? Whereas it had, at least in some circles, become totally acceptable to fill records with substandard music, it is now essential for artists to create consistent pieces of work if they want to retain the attention of their audience. The last ten years have delivered their fair share of hits and misses, and this list doesn’t pretend to be in any way shape or form exhaustive. This is just, in no particular order, the definitive list of the 20 albums that have defined the noughties at themilkfactory.

JOANNA NEWSOM
Ys
DC303CD
Drag City 2006
05 Tracks. 55mins41secs
.

An album like no other, by an artist like no other. Containing just five songs, some developed over fifteen minutes, Ys, named after a small mythical city on the coast of Brittany, France, is the second album by American folk singer and harp player Joanna Newsom. Van Dyke Parks wraps lush orchestrations around Joanna Newsom’s weird and wonderful tales to give her poetic lyrics additional relief and accentuate the emotional nature of her compositions.

Read review

MURCOF
Martes
BAY23CD
The Leaf Label 2002
09 Tracks. 51mins55secs
.
.

Sampling contemporary classical works and assembling them into stark electronic pieces, propelled by micro beats and glitches, Mexican artist Fernando Corona, recording under the name Murcof, created one of the most compelling and evocative electronic debuts of the decade.

Read review

BROADCAST
Tender Buttons
WARPCD136
Warp Records 2005
14 Tracks. 40mins32secs
.
.

By the time they released their third album, Broadcast had simmer down to just Trish Keenan and James Cargill, and had shed most of the rich and ornate forms of previous records to only retain the gritty electronic core of their music.

Read review

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
Merriweather Post Pavilion
WIGCD216
Domino Recording Co. 2009
11 Tracks. 54mins42secs
.
.

Merriweather Post Pavilion is a far cry from the primal tribal sound of Animal Collective’s early records, yet it is also a testament of how the band have retained the essence of their sound while continuously evolving into more song-based forms.

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PORTISHEAD
Third
1764013
Island Records 2008
11 Tracks. 50mins06secs
.
.

It took over ten years for Portishead to release the follow up to their eponymous second album, but Third proved worth the wait. Gone was the trip-hop of the mid-nineties, replaced with healthy doses of Krautrock, but at the heart of it still lies ‘that voice’.

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ARVE HENRIKSEN
Cartography
ECM2086
ECM Records 2008
12 Tracks. 51mins11secs
.
.

After three genre-defining albums for Rune Grammofon, Arve Henriksen’s Cartography, released on ECM, showed a more mature approach. Working with the cream of Scandinavian jazz, Henriksen created with this fourth album a truly masterful work.

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BIOSPHERE
Dropsonde
TO66LP
Touch 2005
06 Tracks. 37mins52secs
.
.

After a series of increasingly isolationist ambient records, Biosphere’s Geir Jenssen took a different path with his eighth album, incorporating jazz rhythms and richer, warmer soundscapes into his sumptuous ambient compositions.

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CLARK
Body Riddle
WARPCD149
Warp Records 2006
11 Tracks. 42mins21secs
.
.

Clark has established himself as the most consistent of Warp’s electronic artists of the decade with a string of excellent electronic records. Gritty, raw and angular, Body Riddle, his third album, defined Clark’s sound more than any other.

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AUTECHRE
Quaristice / Quaristice (Versions)
WARPCD333X0
Warp Records 2008
11 Tracks. 67mins49secs
.
.

Seventeen years on from their first release, Autechre continue to redefine their sound record after record. Quaristice, with shorter, snappier tracks, showed a return to more accessible musical forms, while its sister album, Quaristice (Versions), offered totally different versions of some of the same tracks.

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BURIAL
Untrue
HDBC002
Hyperdub Records 2007
10 Tracks. 50mins28secs
.

A strong progression from the clinical dubstep of Burial’s debut, Untrue introduced haunting voices and swirling melodies, wrapped around razor sharp beats.

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TWINE
Twine
GI18
Ghostly International 2003
09 Tracks. 63mins32secs
.

Twine’s fourth album constituted the pinnacle of the duo’s electro-acoustic work. Processing acoustic and electric instruments and incorporating them in their complex electronic constructions, occasionally adding vocal samples, they created a truly compelling record.

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BENOÎT PIOULARD
Précis
KRANK098
Kranky 2006
14 Tracks. 36mins52secs
.
.

Combining delicate acoustic song forms and electronics, American musician Thomas Meluch, recording as Benoît Pioulard, produced a stunning record, filled with poetic touches and intelligent pop music.

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THE BLACK DOG WITH BLACK SIFICHI
Unsavoury Products
PUPLP3
Hydrogen Dukebox 2002
20 Tracks. 65mins26secs
.
.

Prior to The Black Dog becoming a trio again, Ken Downie recorded this record with Scottish poet Black Sifichi, who can be heard throughout the album placing his odd surrealist tales over Downie’s impeccably classy electronica.

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MAX RICHTER
The Blue Notebooks
CD1304
130701/Fat-Cat Records 2004
11 Tracks. 40mins36secs
.
.

One of the brightest talents on the new classical scene, composer and pianist Max Richter created a truly evocative piece of work with his second album, mixing delicate piano pieces, compositions for string quartets, discreet electronics and found sounds.

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THE VILLAGE ORCHESTRA
Et In Arcadia Ego
HPLL014
Highpoint Lowlife 2005
09 Tracks. 57mins00secs
.

The first album by Marcia Blaine School For Girls member Ruaridh Law was released five years ago on the excellent Highpoint Lowlife, deploying inspired atmospheric soundscapes and complex beat structures over just under an hour.

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310
Recessional
BAY33CD
The Leaf Label 2003
15 Tracks. 54mins37secs
.
.

Combining elements of hip-hop, jazz, electronica and folk has been at the core of 310’s work for over a decade now, but on their fifth album, their third for Leaf, the duo formed of Joseph Dierker and Tim Donovan gave their sound a more accessible twist while losing none of its original intricacy.

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VARIOUS PRODUCTION
The World Is Gone
XLCD204
XL Recordings 2006
12 Tracks. 46mins52secs
.
.

Operating under a rather anonymous name, British duo Various Production conjured the contradictory forces of urban dubstep and pastoral folk into one fascinating record, served by a plethora of vocal contributors.

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COLLEEN ET LES BOITES A MUSIQUE
Colleen Et Les Boîtes A Musique
BAY53CD
The Leaf Label 2006
14 Tracks. 38mins55secs
.

French artist has released three magnificent records in the last decade, yet it is this mini album, originally commissioned by French public service radio station France Culture, composed entirely on music boxes and processed on computer later on, that has proved the most enduring, evocative and poetic of the lot.

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SUPERSILENT
6
RCD2029
Rune Grammofon 2003
06 Tracks. 57mins51secs
.

The sixth album by Norwegian super group Supersilent showed yet another dimension to the quartet’s incredibly vast repertoire by investigating the slightly more subtle ambient side of their improvisation work.

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BEN FROST
Theory Of Machines
HVALUR2
Bedroom Community 2006
05 Tracks. 38mins40secs
.
.

Australian musician Ben Frost’s first album for Bedroom Community was like a series of shockwaves delivered in the space of forty minutes and five tracks. A deeply haunting and often threatening record, it continues to make a considerable mark.

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VARIOUS ARTISTS
In The North EP
DUSTV017
Dust Science Recordings 2009
04 Tracks. 20mins08secs
Format: Digital

Dubstore Digital: DLD | Amazon UK: DLD Boomkat: DLD iTunes: DLD

After a hiatus of a few months, Dust Science, the label ran by Black Dog current members Martin and Richard Dust, is back with a collective EP featuring tracks by The Black Dog, Grievous Angel, The Bass Soldier and Carl Taylor, each contributing one slice of mighty fine electronic music.

Opening the proceedings are the legendary Black Dog, who have, since the Dust brothers joined force with Ken Downie, wandered freely between classic Detroit-infused techno and more subtle and refined atmospheric electronica. With Tesco (Dark House), they are found on supremely minimal form, invoking the spirit of Perlon more than that of Plus 8 Record, especially in the first half of this rather moody, robust piece. Three and a half minutes in, a floating melody softens the razor-sharp hits of the rhythmic section slightly, but as soon as it vanishes again, and it never surfaces for long, it is back to the austere outline of the beginning. Following closely, and riding on a smooth beat, restricted, yet lush, soundscapes, and hypnotic melody, Carl Taylor’s cut is pure classic Detroit, of the kind that works particularly well as sunrise, once the huge tunes have finished parading their nasty arrogance and gone back in their box, when there’s call for more sophisticated music to provide the last lift of the night. But, very much like it is the case with B12 or The Black Dog, Taylor injects some typical home-grown refinement to give Walk On By a slight English undertone.

The last two tracks, while very different, are resolutely more urban in tone. Grievous Angel’s monster Show Love heavily references dubstep, but with a slight techno slant. This is by far the most aggressive and bad-tempered track on this EP. Playing with dubbey atmospherics placed over a broken beat and sending electroshocks through the whole track, Grievous Angel, a new addition to the Dust Science stable, offers here a hugely angular slice of urban groove from this East London-born DJ and musician. Last in line is The Bass Soldier, an eighteen-year old musician who has so far been credited with a couple of remixes for The Black Dog. His contribution rolls on with a pretty steady beat, but rapidly, a sombre rounded bass line sends this piece into a very different direction. His groove is resolutely greasy and dirty, hinting at 2step and drum’n’bass without actually leaving the confines of techno fully. Quite a gritty conclusion to an EP that collates quite a few different aspects of techno.

4/5

Dust Science Recordings
Dubstore Digital: DLD | Amazon UK: DLD Boomkat: DLD iTunes: DLD

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Warp20 (Box Set) / Warp20 (Recreated) / Warp20 (Chosen)
WARP20.0 / WARP201 / WARP 202
Warp Records 2009
– / 21 Tracks / 24 Tracks. – / 99mins13secs / 127mins18secs

Warp20 (Box Set)
Boomkat: BX

Warp20 (Recreated)
Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

Warp20 (Chosen)
Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

LFO. Three metallic blue letters, straddled by a ghostly shape, set on a black background. Three letters that changed things forever. The year was 1991, I was browsing through the new arrivals in my local records store, and the Designers Republic artwork of LFO’s Frequencies was standing out from the blur, calling out for my attention. An hour or so later, I was left baffled by a record which I was struggling to understand. On one side, the lush flow and shattering bass of LFO or Simon From Sydney irresistibly titillated my appetite for crisp evocative electronics, on the other, I had never experienced anything quite as bare as Mentok 1 or We Are Back. This album bore its influences on its sleeve, literally, and it took a few listens to ‘get it’. But ‘get it’ I did. More than I could have ever wished for. I was hooked. Not only on LFO, but also on Warp.

The brainchild of Steve Beckett and the late Rob Mitchell, who founded the label twenty years ago in the former metallurgic city of Sheffield, Warp found itself at a crossroad between the dying acid scene and the nascent UK techno/electronica movements, fuelled by waves of grooves and beats coming from Detroit, and soon gathered a fledging roster comprising the likes of Nightmares On Wax, Sweet Exorcist, the project of Richard ‘DJ Parrot’ Barratt and former Cabaret Voltaire member Richard H. Kirk, LFO, Tricky Disco or DJ Mink, all names who have become synonymous with this then new sound coming from the north. The first release, Forgemasters’ Track With No Name, dressed in a highly visible purple sleeve, sounded as mysterious as its title, and the following EPs, Nightmares On Wax’s Dextrous, Sweet Exorcist’s Test One, DJ Mink’s Hey! Hey! Can You Relate, Tricky Disco’s and LFO’s eponymous releases, all released within a year, started to give a much clearer idea of the label’s direction.

WARP1 came in early 1991, courtesy of Sweet Exorcist. This very first artist full length contained just seven cuts of minimal beats, bleepy electronica and hypnotic loops, and, together with the albums that followed, LFO’s seminal Frequencies and Nightmares On Wax’s A World Of Science, established the blue print of what Warp would stand for in the first half of the nineties. But, while these albums all shared a taste for beelpy house and techno, they had clear individual identities. CCCD was tinted with Afro beats, Frequencies openly referenced Kraftwerk, A World Of Science was soulful and groovy.

The next significant step, and perhaps the single most defining moment of the label’s twenty years’ history, came the following year with the release of a new compilation, entitled Artificial Intelligence, which kicked off the series of the same name. Then, names such as B12, The Black Dog or Autechre were only known to a few, but this collection, and the subsequent albums, changed all that. Six albums, by Polygon Window, The Black Dog, B12, Richie Hawtin, Speedy J and Autechre, bookended by two compilations, released over two years, would forever place Warp at the forefront of contemporary electronic music. Since, there has been the acid jazz/funk of Jimi Tenor, the retro-futuristic pop of Broadcast, the sweet folk of Gravenhurst, the progressive hip-hop of Antipop Consortium, the angular rock of Battles… but Warp remains above all a hive of forward-thinking electronic music, whether in the hands of Boards Of Canada, Squarepusher or Clark.

Twenty years is a very long time in popular music, yet going through the label’s releases, it also feels like a blink. The first outings on the label of Aphex Twin (1994), Boards of Canada (1998), Broadcast (2000), Jamie Lidell (2000) or Clark (2001), the Peel Session series, they are all still vivid markers in the label’s history. Compiling a ten track album out of such a vast and varied catalogue was always going to be an impossible task, and one that Steve Beckett couldn’t manage. His contribution to the Warp20 (Chosen) collection contains fourteen, carefully selected from thousands, lifted off albums or EPs, and often away from obvious choices (Broadcast’s Tender Buttons, Flying Lotus’s GNG BNG, Mike Ink’s Paroles or Aphex Twin’s Bocephalus Bouncing Ball) alongside slightly better known tracks (Grizzly Bear’s Colorado, Squarepusher’s My Sound or Jamie Lidell’s Daddy’s Car). By contrast, the first of the two (Chosen) CDs was selected from votes fans recorded on a special website, and expectedly features some of the most iconic and best known tracks on the labels, from Aphex Twin’s Window Licker, which opens, Squarepusher’s My Red Hot Car or Battles’ Atlas to LFO’s LFO, Luke Vibert’s I Love Acid, Autechre’s Gantz Graf or Clark’s Herzog, all neatly lined up like for an identity parade. Such an exercise is likely to cause controversy through obvious omissions (there is, for instance, no mention of Mira Calix, B12, Prefuse 73 or Two Lone Swordsmen) but covering as wide a catalogue as that of Warp in such a short formatted way is, quite, impossible.

The second half of this Warp20 selection goes much further than the traditional remix exercise, as was the case with Warp 10. Various members of the roster, past and present, were each asked to cover a track released through the label in the last twenty years. The result is, to say the least, eclectic and full of surprises, from the playful (Born Ruffians version of Aphex Twin’s Milkman, here combined with To Cure A Weakling Child, Plone’s On My Bus, as interpreted by Plaid), to the slightly odd (John Callaghan basing a composition on Autechre’s Tilapia), and the poetic (Boards Of Canada’s Kaini Industries as viewed through the eyes of Bibio or Jamie Lidell’s wonderfully impressive revision of Grizzly Bear’s Little Brother) to the insanely brilliant (Luke Vibert’s take on LFO, Mark Pritchard’s excellent 3/4 Heart, originally by The Black Dog, Mira Calix’s exquisite and orchestral In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country, Pivot’s Colorado or Gravenhurst’s magnificent reworking of Broadcast’s I Found The F).

These two collections offer just a glimpse into the first two decades of a label that has unmistakably marked its era, like Blue Note, Impulse, Motown or Island did theirs. (Chosen), with its straightforward selection provides an ideal entry point to the label and proves a worthy companion to Warp 10+2: Classics, released to celebrate the label’s tenth anniversary, while (Recreated) offers a much more oblique and novel way through the catalogue, and is more likely to appeal to fans. In addition, Warp are releasing an extremely limited box set which, besides these two compilations, will also feature a mix CD in the tradition of Blech or WarpVision, plus three 10″ comprising previously unreleased material by Autechre, Boards of Canada, Broadcast and more, plus double 10” of loops to play with, the lot encased in a stunning box and accompanied by a catalogue documenting over 400 record covers designed by some of the most exciting studios around. Now, that’s a compendium! Happy anniversary Warp. Here’s to the next 20 years.

Warp20 (Recreated): 4.7/5 / Warp20 (Chosen): 4.9/5

Warp Records

Warp20 (Box Set)
Boomkat: BX

Warp20 (Recreated)
Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

Warp20 (Chosen)
Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

THE BLACK DOG
Further Vexations
SOMA077
Soma Quality Recordings 2009
15 Tracks. 68mins26secs

Buy: CD

Almost a year to the day after the release of the rather impressive Radio Scarecrow, and twenty years on from Downie’s first ever release, The Black Dog is back, tail wagging, with another slice of dense and moody electronica, fuelled with classic Detroit flavours and self-styled Northern electronic soul attitude.

While Radio Scarecrow represented quite a departure from its predecessor, Further Vexations appears in many ways as a more in-depth exploration of a particular groove, as if the stones turned on Radio Scarecrow had, with times, brought to the surface much more subterranean life than originally found. On this latest offering, Ken Downie and brothers Richard and Martin Dust have laid out some pretty stark and dense soundscapes and continuously play with light and shade to give their sound its distinctive relief. After a somewhat rather serene opening piece, The Black Dog up the antes and get cracking, first with the deep pulsating 0093, then with the equally dark and ominous You’re Only SQL and We Are Haunted, the latter built around a rather more minimal combination of beat and bass than any other track on here, placing it at the intersection of Detroit and Berlin.

Later on, CCTV Nation appears to reference Downie’s early nineties playground, albeit with added drive, before the album enters a more peaceful second phase, where powerful warm sonic waves come crashing, one after the other, over subtle melodies to create a contrasted moody set. Starting with the blissful Stempel and moving on through the Northern Electronic Soul triptych before diving down into some beautiful atmospheric pieces, the trio still rely on strong beat and deep resonating bass formations, but the pace becomes progressively slower and broken as the end nears. The last three tracks in particular pushing deep into The Black Dog’s exquisite dreamy world. Here, the soundscapes become much more open and light floods in once again, hitting various angles to create rich colourful strips which become increasingly vivid to finally take their full effect on closing piece Kissing Someone Else’s D.O.G.

There is, like in many of The Black Dog’s releases, another dimension to Further Vexations, which is revealed through some of the track titles. Biomantric L-if-e and You’re Only SQL hint at the powerful information databases being used by governments in the name of security, while CCTV Nation spells out unequivocally how Britain especially has become a nation under constant surveillance. To complete the picture, the cover shows part of a fingerprint on a backdrop of video surveillance images and electronic voices can be heard listing, amongst other tings, ID cards, biometric measures and computer world at the end of Northern Electronic Soul Pt. 2.

With this latest offering, The Black Dog continue to dispense their beautifully polished blend of electronica. Faithful to the original scope of the band, yet resolutely modern and fresh, the Sheffield-based trio show no sign of mellowing.

4.6/5

The Black Dog | Soma Quality Recordings
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THE BLACK DOG
Vexing EP
SOMA263
Soma Quality Recordings 2009
03 Tracks. 17mins36secs
Format: 12″/Digital

In recent years, The Black Dog have appeared rejuvenated and has found a new energy and dimension in brother Martin and Richard Dust, delivering albums and EPs with the confidence Ken Downie demonstrated in the early nineties. With a new album, Further Vexations, ready to be unleashed, the trio launch a first missive with this three track EP comprising of two tracks (0093 and You’re Only SQL) lifted from the album and beefed up to dance floor musculature, plus a third exclusive ambient piece, Plinth.

Downie and crew have always  favoured the gracious flow of Detroit style techno, but these days, the edge, on EPs at least, while still retaining a strong sense of texture and atmosphere, is a bit sharper. This is certainly the case with the Berlin mix of 0093, which kicks off here. Beyond its minimal appearance and linear beat hides a relentless groove driven by a heart-stopping bass, which never falters during the nearly eight minutes of the mix. Over this occasionally hangs a swift little melody, which, despite its fleeting aspect, contributes to the alienating effect of the track. You’re Only SQL is even harsher in its BCN guise as it circles around rarefied melodic and atmospheric debris, stomping moodily to the beat, throwing electric discharges up and down the spine with each new step. Plinth in comparison is a heavenly piece the way The Black Dog know how to create. in just two and a half minutes, the trio create a subtle and delicate little vignette bathed in warm glowing light.

Beside the strong narrative of their full lengths, The Black Dog have consistently revealed much sharper and immediate tones and forms with their EPs, and this latest offering is no exception. Offering a first reading of their forthcoming album, the trio show once again that they are still very much at the top of their game.

4.4/5

The Black Dog | Soma Quality Recordings

THE BLACK DOG
Radio Scarecrow
SOMACD67
Soma Quality Recordings 2008
17 Tracks. 68mins57secs

Since The Black Dog has become a fully functioning tri-headed cell again, it has delivered new and reconditioned material with insistent regularity, sourcing in the beast’s rich past the necessary fuel to move forward and adapt its visionary electronica to a different era through a series of classic EPs and the underrated 2005 Silenced album, while some of the long unavailable back catalogue dating back from the original Black Dog days got dusted off and polished to once again spread their wings and regain their .

Radio Scarecrow is a much more ambitious and confident affair than its predecessor as Ken Downie and brothers Richard and Martin Dust move away from the introvert ambient textures of Silenced and venture into more substantial terrains. Inspired by the band’s interest in Magick, numbers stations and electronic voice phenomenon, Radio Scarecrow is said to harbour messages and codes hidden deep within the music, which only occasionally come up close enough to be perceptible but are dotted substantially across the album.

On the surface, the seventeen tracks, spread over nearly seventy minutes, are classic blissful electronica with hints of Detroit techno scattered throughout. Partly built around linear beat formations, clean cut soundscapes and themes that often develop over the course of a few consecutive tracks, Radio Scarecrow is extremely fluid and lush. The vast sonic core that serves as a back bone for the first part of the Train By The Autobahn diptych, which sets the album on its way once the ethereal ambience of opening piece Transmission Start has died down, morphs into a much lighter and ephemeral sound in its second part. Later, textural elements bounce from …Short Wave Lies to Siiipher and Digital Poacher, which itself echoes down Coda. All four tracks are clearly informed by classic early nineties electronic dance music, applied in various forms and concepts, yet all seemingly held together by a common spirit, which cascades down further later on.

As the mood retreats to gentler grounds on Set To Receive, distant voices float furtively amongst radio signals for a moment before being swallowed by shimmering electronics and a pulsating bass line, while, from below the surface of the splendid Witches Ov rises a dreamy melody which, once released from the grip of a tight drum pattern, rapidly disappears in the distance. Elsewhere, the trio delve into heavier grounds, especially on EVP Echoes and Floods V3.9, where more complex rhythmic structures are put in place to give the two tracks a firmer structure, before wrapping up the album with the haunting Eno-esque piano-led Ghost Vexations and the Dial & Dialers Pts. 1 & 2 interludes.

With Radio Scarecrow, The Black Dog continue to develop the sound they have showcased in recent EPs and affirm their relevance in today’s electronic scene. With this beautifully produced collection, Ken Downie, Richard Dust and Martin Dust create a truly engaging and contemporary record.

4.2/5

The Black Dog | Radio Scarecrow microsite | Soma Quality Recordings