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Album Reviews
Album Review: The Black Dog – Further Vexations (Soma Records)
By Paul Vig | Published on Monday 27 April 2009
The Black Dog has morphed into a slightly different canine over the last few years, and after parting ways with Ed Handley and Andy Turner, who left to form Plaid, remaining member Ken Downie now has hooked up with Martin and Richard from Dust Science to produce the project’s fourth album, the follow-up to ‘Radio Scarecrow’. It takes a few listens to get into, because the tracks aren’t the kind that are instantly accessible, and that’s what you would, and should, expect from TBD. There’s quite a variety of material here, from the moody techno of ‘0093’, to the the tech twinkles of ‘You’re Only SQL’ the old school techno and slightly funky warped bass of album highlight ‘We Are Haunted’ and the classic feel of ‘CCTV Nation’. Deep soulful vibes emanate from ‘Stempel’ and ‘Northern Electronic Soul’ which is broken into three parts, part two being a spacious ride into tech dance, part three excelling with its encircling rhythms and heavily pulsed synths. Moving on, ‘Skin Clock’ is moody whilst menacing breaks abound in ‘Dada Mindstab’, whilst ‘Tunnels Ov Set ‘has a Vangelis feel to it. The album is rounded of with ‘Kissing Someone Else’s D.O.G.’, which ends with some mellow ambient akin to ’76:14′ from Global Communication. On the whole, it’s well worth a check, and as expected, is far from a standard techno album. Recommended. PV
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