The Black Dog - Radio Scarecrow

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

3...according to our Mingus on Thu 27 Mar, 2008.

The Black Dog: Radio Scarecrow (Soma) The latest incarnation of Black Dog continues the legacy of post-techno electronica synonymous with Warp's famous but now defunct series of artificial intelligence recordings pioneered by the likes of Aphex Twin, B12, Autechre and the original line up of Black Dog that included Ed and Andy of Plaid. Without being too brutal, the music is very well produced but stuck in the aforementioned genre of lush padded views, soft focused beats and highly melodic keyboard refrains that have remained popular to this day. I can see why listeners are seduced by the percussive ticks, warm textures and post-club 'vibes' of some of these 3am offerings. Working more as a collection rather than a series of individual tracks, some of the more beat-y tunes could be offered up on an early morning come down set. Not one for me but I can see some junior raver getting into this.

‘Radio Scarecrow’ has been over two years in the making, constantly developing and building, culminating in a masterpiece work that flows delightfully and hits hard.    According to The Black Dog, speaking of ‘Radio Scarecrow’, “The beats are faster and the bass is much heavier – so much so that it was making us ill working with the low frequencies for hours on end, we could only do 3 hours at a time on some parts”. Tracks like ‘Floods v3.9’ and ‘Beep’ are testament to this.
Influenced heavily by their interest in magick, numbers stations and Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP), the act have hidden examples of these within their work: “These transmissions and recordings (and people’s interpretations of them) had a strong influence on many of the final concepts and compositions, to the point where we’ve been embedding coded messages and curses deep inside the tracks”.
‘Radio Scarecrow’ unfolds gracefully. Barely skipping a beat between tracks, the act have created an album that demands to be listened to in its entirety. With elements blending between and with constant themes of conspiracy and the supernatural, The Black Dog present more than a mere collection of tracks.
Reviews : DJ Mag, iDJ, Mixmag, M8, Update, Snafu Mag, The Skinny, Clash Magazine, Posivision, The List, Future Music, EQ Mag, XLR8R, Vicious, Magnet, DJ Times, Plan B, Raveline, Groove, De:Bug, Keys, One Week To Live, Tsugi, Vicious, Daily Record, Fact, Clash, Loud, Floor, Skruff, Reverb, Notion, Q.    Features : iDJ, The Skinny, Raveline, Clash, One Week To Live, Beatportal, The Wire, The List, DJ Mag.
Emailout to Soma & Slam Events databases (10k). Action on Soma MySpace & Facebook groups. Full digital promotion campaign. Internet viral campaign. Plays on key internet radio stations (Proton, Samurai, Launchcast) & reviews to feature on key websites (Resident Advisor, EQ, 4clubbers).
Club DJ support : Laurent Garnier, Dave Clarke, Andrew Weatherall, Craig Richards, Billy Nasty, Sven Vath, Surgeon, Josh Wink, Carl Craig, Claude Young, Mary Anne Hobbs, Aldrin Quek, Fabrice Lig, Tom Novy.
Transmission Start
Train By The Autobahn (Part 1)
Train By The Autobahn (Part 2)
Riphead v9
UV Sine
…Short Wave Lies
Siiiipher
Digital Poacher
   Coda
Set To Receive
EVP Echoes
Floods v3.9
Beep
Witches OV
Dials & Dialers 1
Ghost Vexations
Dials & Dialers 2