Bitten by The Black Dog again

The Black Dog are about to release a new album Radio Scarecrow in early April. Yikes!

I am a bit undecided about the new, reformed Black Dog, since their last album "Silenced" somehow flew past my ears. I was trying to get into it, but it somehow didn´t click with me.

After all, Black Dog mk1 are responsible for my favourite electronic music ever. Especially the enourmous "Spanners" is -for me- the best electronic album ever recorded and nothing that was released under this name ever came close to this dense and fantastic work.

Listen to "Psil-cosyin", one of the main track from "Spanners" that goes to places in 10 minutes that other aural wallpaper creators can only hint at in their whole career. This is not "close your eyes and drift"-music as it will transform everthing you see while you hear it.

After the split of the trio, Plaid were trying to continue with the alien-exoctica sound and they had some brilliant moments, especially on "Rest Proof Clockwork", "Double Figure" and lately they had some great tracks on the "Tekkon Kinkreet"-Soundtrack ("White´s dream" is easily their best piece). Comparing their sound aesthetic to the old Black Dog stuff, it is quite clear that the two Plaid guys were the ones who were responsible for the far-out sound design.

But this morning I came across this Interview, Black Dog gave to Fact Magazine. And they are dropping references like Cabaret Voltaire and R.H. Kirk in his "Virtual State"-phase, they tell that they ate Prozac to record under the influence and hint at colossal low frequency experiments during the recording sessions. Suddenly I was all giddy for it!

"Radio Scarecrow" can be streamed (in one minute bites at least) here and what I have heard so far is very, very pleasing and exiting.
A succession of 17 tracks, mostly relaxing with an uptempo track here and there and interspersed with strange radio transmissions. The sound is absolutely clear and sparkling, the drum patterns are once again shuffling and complex.

Here is "UV Sine" in full (not much to see, but anyway)