The Black Dog reacted against rave’s racket by gently cocking a leg and squirting what became known as intelligent techno, becoming figureheads of a new UK electronica underground in the process. Influenced by Detroit innovators Derrick May and Juan Atkins, the Dog cast extraterrestrial keyboards over pounding grooves and alien funk. It’s fitting they now resurface on Soma, the Glasgow-based label which recently celebrated 15 years at the cutting edge. After last year’s comeback with new line-up and material, this 2-CD retrospective ropes together 12”s which have been changing hands for obscene amounts, alongside tracks from the albums Parallel, Bytes and Spanners.
The old Dog still sounds startlingly innovative and galaxysurfing, with seminal early tracks such as Parallel and Hub achieving a sepulchral, majestic beauty, using just ethereal organ, bass and drums imbued with bubbling funk and jazz flavours. Even when firing the dancefloor on the likes of VIRT2L and Squelch, there has to be a quick Martian detour or subtle twist thrown into the cauldron, which occasionally sounds like it’s having trouble containing all the ideas spewing forth. It’s about time the new generation of electronic dance music fans heard what a real alien invasion sounded like.
