The Black Dog

Acquiring their name from a British euphemism for imminent doom, the Black color Dog (also showing up variously as Black color Pet Productions, Balil, Xeper, and Plaid, amongst others) created in the first ’90s because the trio of Ken Downie, Ed Handley, and Andy Turner. Forging a demanding, relentless mix of early techno, electro, and hip-hop having a penchant for unusual period signatures, high-tech atmospherics, and Egyptian iconography, the group instantly distinguished itself from your scores of throw-away techno music artists covering familiar surface within the post-rave U.K. Something of the closet phenomenon appealing to the devotion of DJs who non-etheless refused to try out their challenging brew for concern with being booed from the decks, the Dark Dog were instantly put into the rising “smart techno” category upon the discharge of the full-length debut, Bytes. A generally U.K.-mass media constituted phrase designed to peg music involving dance music compositional designs nonetheless designed for house listening, the word has since taken keep and it is often put on groups want Autechre, Aphex Twin, µ-Ziq, so when A single. As Plaid, Ed Handley and Andy Turner got already released a small number of materials (including an record) ahead of conference Downie, but their period spent in BDP was their most successful up compared to that stage. As well as the Dog’s addition on the probably even more high-profile Artificial Cleverness compilations on Warp and remixes for famous brands Björk, Blondie, UNKLE, and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, in addition they released many full-length functions as an organization before Handley and Turner defected in 1995 to refocus on Plaid full-time. The set released an EP in the Crystal clear label in middle-1995, and released their 1st full-length, Not really for Threes, 2 yrs down the road Warp. Downie continuing on using the Dark Dog name, liberating the full-length Music for Adverts (And Brief Movies) in 1996. In 2002, Downie collaborated with Parisian spoken term artist Dark Sifichi around the William S. Burroughs tribute Unsavoury Items, as well as the Downie/Sifichi pairing was presented with the remix treatment on the next year’s Genetically Modified. Downie resurfaced in 2005 with Martin and Richard Dirt, releasing the solid albums Silenced (2005), Radio Scarecrow (2008), Further Vexations (2009), and Music for Actual International airports (2010) — a directed reaction to Brian Eno’s Music for International airports, made to “reinforce the fake utopia and false idealism of flights.” Liber Dogma (2011) and Tranklements (2013) adopted closely behind. During this time period of weighty activity, there is a small number of compilations, like the early-years anthology Publication of Dogma, along with the later short-format selections Thee Singles and Thee Singles II.