Search - Black Dog :: Spanners

Spanners
Black Dog
Spanners
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Pop
 
  •  Track Listings (15) - Disc #1

Spanners takes the dense polyrhythms and complex melodies that Black Dog explored on Bytes and builds an engaging and endlessly listenable sonic maze for your enjoyment. At times it's a straightforward techno album, but in...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Black Dog
Title: Spanners
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Elektra / Wea
Release Date: 4/25/1995
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Pop
Styles: Ambient, Electronica, IDM, Techno, Dance Pop
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 075596180627, 075596180641

Synopsis

Amazon.com
Spanners takes the dense polyrhythms and complex melodies that Black Dog explored on Bytes and builds an engaging and endlessly listenable sonic maze for your enjoyment. At times it's a straightforward techno album, but in true Discordian fashion the styles are random and slippery; the 12 tracks, held together by short musical "Bolts," bob and weave through Latin, Arabesque, and even country styles, ensuring a surprise around every corner. Unfortunately, the Black Dog split up shortly after this album's release, with Ken Downie continuing the madness with a series of decidedly unmemorable albums, and Ed Handey and Andy Turner moving on to create further gems as Plaid. But their legacy remains: Spanners is an album for which the term "eclectic" doesn't quite do. It's simply a masterpiece. --Matthew Corwine

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CD Reviews

Essential
Giuseppe A. Paleologo | Riverdale, NY United States | 02/09/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the best work of Black Dog, and Black Dog truly is one of of the best electronica-techno-ambient-you-name-it acts of the past decade. They were in many ways precursors of Autechre in exploring polyrythms. Also, they have great compositional skills: their melodies and loops are never trivial, a quality that has been preserved in the CDs of Plaid. There are quotations and influences of middle eastern music soul, folk and previous electronica (sampled voices a la Orb and Eno), but they are never obstrusive: this is original music, not a danceable repackaging of some ethnic tape recorded in Central Africa. What is unique to BD is that their are multifaceted but still having a unique identity. For example there is a well definite "Autechre sound", which is always very consistent, and the same holds for Seefeel, or Boards of Canada, or Squarepusher; in all these cases excellent music. But in my humble opinion only AFX and Black Dog/Plaid and Richard D. James are able to span over such a wide palette of styles without losing their identity or "selling out". Only because of this, I would recommend this album to any electronica fan."
I can't believe someone let this go out of print.
Duy Q. Tran | Portland, Oregon, USA | 11/05/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)

"the black dog are sort of unique in that their sound is absolutely accessible and yet still interesting. their technique of layering arabic rhythms may be experimental in approach but the end result is a sound that is easily understood, heard and felt. that's the beauty of the black dog and this album, their best work. they simply make complex music that is first and foremost...beautiful. the stand-out track is "psilcoysin" which sounds like a thousand musical sidewinders weaving in and out of each other. by the end, you should be hypnotized with your mouth agape. get a used copy if you can."
Mind blown!
R. Haught | Hazelwood, MO United States | 01/10/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)

"If your a music geek and particularly an electronic music fan this is an absolute must have! There arent many out there, get one while you can. Before hearing this I though BOC's MHTRTC was the greatest electronic album, it has now been pushed to second place."