The Black Dog - Dubs Volume 1: Sheffield/Volume 2: Brutal (self-released)

Way late arrival to this.  Really enjoying all three volumes of this.  

I never really got into Black Dog much after Ed and Andy left, but between Fragments and these recent eps, I am re-hooked.

I look forward to their upcoming ambient album

  On 10/3/2021 at 5:42 PM, Extralife said:

Way late arrival to this.  Really enjoying all three volumes of this.  

I never really got into Black Dog much after Ed and Andy left, but between Fragments and these recent eps, I am re-hooked.

I have to admit: I became OBSESSED with the "Silenced", "Radio Scarecrow", "Further Vexations", "Music for Real Airports", "Liber Dogma", "Tranklements", "Neither/Neither", "Post-Truth", "Black Daisy Wheel", and "Fragments" line of CD output, in that order about a year ago. That's a very slow burn to build up for me, as I was an obsessive over "Bytes", "Spanners", and "Music for Adverts and Films" for years. I was worried when I heard about the departure of Ed and Andy, whom I adore (I have a signed CD on my wall, next to a signed box of Autechre's EP collection and a signed copy of Steve Hauschildt's first solo album: my holy trinity of signed works). But something clicked with "Liber Dogma" for me, and I felt that I can see the Black Dog as its own wonderful, prodigious thing, next to Plaid in its own right, but there's no need to really compare them in the first place. It's really its own thing, and its full of intelligence, and social anxiety about stupid-ass uses of technology, and society's malformations and all the shit I also think about and worry about on a regular basis. These guys have my heart, too. 

And have you seen their serious fucking output?! They don't stop, and it's all quality. Inspiring, to say the least. They have a book of photography, and they're constantly putting out new albums and EPs. I miss the vinyl, though. If I can suggest anything it's that they put out some more vinyl soon because, hey, the world is burning up anyway and I like some larger artworks because my rapidly aging eyeballs can see it better and because I can play it for friends while the continent of North America is burning up and filling the air with toxic particles and George Carlin was probably right when he said that the planet just wants "PLASTIC, ASSHOLE!" It's all going to shit, anyway. 

We are sheffield is the baum

I don't think Plaid or the new Black Dog have ever done anything as good as Spanners but I do like quite a few tracks from the post-Plaid incarnation of Black Dog.

Many of the Liber series have serious dancefloor burners, Vexations are nice and there's some really good tracks in the Hoaxer series. I like Post-Truth and Black Daisy Wheel, too - and The Books of Dogma have essential material, especially the first one (what is book II, Liber?). The Conspiracy Tapes I find boring, and I'm still on the fence on Dubs.