The Black Dog: Neither/Neither (Dust Science)
LP | CD | DL
Out: August 2015
Subtle, image-forming, thought-creating, eerie and ambient out there new album from The Black Dog.
Ken Downie has guided his The Black Dog project through some 25 years and 11-odd LPs altogether (including two separate trio incarnations). The current trio includes Richard and Martin Dust, members for well over a decade now, with four albums prior Neither/Neither.
The running theme for much of the album – reading the notes that came with the news of its release – is built around, I think, a sense of passiveness mixed with confusion; a lack of questioning, of action, over a seemingly media/ government state of agenda -setting play.
Sleaford Mods address what they see as socio-political injustices, and many people’s acceptance of a seemingly fixed state of pop culture mediocrity (as they see it, of course) with an at times times crude bearing, northern England ‘street poetry’ set to scantily-clad, repetitive punk-funk. By comparison, The Black Dog choose a more subtle, image-forming, thought-creating approach set to IDM-leaning ambient and techno instrumentals. All the while, both acts have much the same opinions and concerns.
The feel to Neither/Neither is equally precarious and confusing, as it is knowing and strangely comforting. Shiftily-drifting, eerily out-there ambient-techno pieces is what this crew do best and, though not necessarily an altogether new sound from what we’ve heard from The Black Dog before, listening here it is still hard to say “no more!”, especially when it happens to be this act who are the weighty providers.
For example, the title-track’s twilight, sci-fi dub and rhythmically placed hi-hat shake-offs work in tandem with Black Celebration-era Depeche Mode-like Them (Everyone Is A Liar But), the latter a dark piece of paranormal spacey-techno. Also, as always with The Black Dog records, the several contemplative, beatless “Philers” of head-turning asceticism are well positioned and make perfect sense. Worth mentioning. The Black Dog don’t do fillers, they just do fillers.
For the majority of the record’s second period things pick up, the BPM ups a couple of gears, the people basically fancy a dance. Commodification, which, if you concentrate for just enough time and at just the right moments, you’ll find uses a similar, if more subtle, kickdrum to FSOL’s 1992 classic single Papau New Guinea, is a personal highlight, with the free-spirited, space shanty Platform Lvl 6 also holding forth.
These moments offer up a different approach, with the knowing trio obviously deciding to hold the more vigorous club tracks back for the latter part of the record, one assumes so as not to upset the contemplative, moodier mode of those earlier moments. All said Neither/Neither is another top ideological-though-not-preachy set of structural, retro-futurist proggish techno from these fellas. It be surely time to dance yourself a resolution?
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The Black Dog are on Facebook and tweet as @TheBlackDog. They can also be found on their official interwebs at theblackdogma.com/tbd.
All words by Philip Neeson. Philip’s Louder Than War author’s archive is hereand he tweets as @philipneeky
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