The Black Dog - We Are Sheffield

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Brett on Thu 27 Aug, 2009.

We Are Sheffield is the latest 12" from Ken Downey's Black Dog, based largely around 'Tunnels Ov Set' from Further Vexations.. He's into Egypt and that isn't he. Cookes' remix is a beauty, with slow motion synapse tickling synth sizzles shifting from speaker to speaker while a crisp technoid beat pounds forth. Bass Soldier puts more focus on the slightly Drexciyan feel of the original, adding breaks for good measure. Autechre slow things right down for a cold, robotic workout that could easily have come from the Chiastic Slide era.. It's not the most exciting thing I've heard them do though, not by any means. 'Tripside Syndicate' is the only new track and it's a brief number that immediately brings to mind Brian Eno's early ambient stuff. Some nice bits on show here, especially that first tune!

· The Black Dog continue their domination of UK techno & IDM with their latest
12”, ‘We Are Sheffield EP’.
· ‘Tunnels Ov Set’ is one of the most brooding works on the album and is given a
monstrous workover here in three very different guises. The Crookes Mix opens
the EP with a dark, twinkling ominous tone, a threatening calm before the aural
assault is launched.
· Next up, The Bass Soldier continues the barrage with another of his technodubstep
behemoths that will thunder over soundsystems with its vicious
bassline and irate drum loops while the synths rain missiles down on the floor.
· For the final remix, The Black Dog enlist old friends in Autechre to provide a post-
Apolcalyptic reworking of the track, a glitched-out, skewed adaptation with a
thick smoggy radioactive overtone covering the soundscapes.
· ‘Seti’ returns the equilibrium with a serene slice of natural ambience which works
well to balance out the EP as a whole.

Tunnels OV Set (Crookes Mix)
Tunnels OV Set (The Bass Soldier Remix)
Tunnels OV Set (Autechre Remix)
Seti