- For Sheffield's The Black Dog, techno is both a musical passion and an ideological position. Steeped in the socialism of their native South Yorkshire (their recent EP, The Return Ov Bleep, sampled veteran British left-wing politician Tony Benn), the trio continue to regard techno as communal, democratic music. One that exists, as the press sheet puts it, in opposition to the "compliant mainstream." Working with the Electronic Supper Club, a grassroots Sheffield music collective, has reconnected The Black Dog to the underground: "As vibrant as ever, not lost to false values, over-sized egos and ladder-climbing brands."
Naturally, therefore, Tranklements (Yorkshire dialect, meaning a collection of precious objects) is an album of single-minded purpose. There are no fashionable diversions into drone, noise or dub techno. Instead, The Black Dog continue to explore the legacies of Detroit and Sheffield bleep techno, and where those two shade into ambient electronica, with technical elegance and emotional honesty. In that way Tranklements recalls Robert Hood's Motor: Nighttime World 3: both exhibit a confidence and composure perhaps unique to veteran producers.
Where it does audibly intersect with contemporary clubland, Tranklements feels entirely unforced. With its vibrant dark energy (all metallic percussion, groaning, ear-worm bass fluctuations and a voice moaning "oh God... oh God..."), "Pray Crash I" could fit into a Ben UFO set. Likewise, you might hear, in the strangulated chirrups that underpin the ecclesiastical organs of "Hymn For SoYo," reference to the rhythmic dysfunction of UK bass. But there is no sense of the Black Dog chasing the zeitgeist. They have perspective, a mature sense of what it is they do. It allows them to retain a clear identity, whether dipping into what could be called tech house ("First Cut"), or negotiating the closing trio of "Death Bingo", "Mind Object" and "Spatchka." During those final 18 minutes, the trio wander on and off the dance floor at will, toggling around various strains of dusky, melancholic techno and skittish electronica, peaking in "Spatchka," an evocative, beatless pay-off—part Krautrock, part Selected Ambient Works, wholly beautiful.
Tracklist01. Alien Boys
Bolt No.6
02. Atavistic Resurgence
Bolt 11b
03. Cult Mentality
04. Hymn For SoYo
Bolt 3533f
05. Pray Crash I
06. Pray Crash II
Bolt 57w
07. Internal Collapse
08. First Cut
Bolt 9>3
09. Death Bingo
10. Mind Object
11. Spatchka