BnB Review: The Black Dog - Liber Dogma
Written by Youri Jozee
Techno - "...a showcase of the band’s extreme skills in creating intelligent music that tickles, mesmerizes, intrigues, and astounds its audience."
Apart from being purveyors of intelligent and emotive purist techno, The Black Dog are also among the most productive. The legendary UK outfit follows up last year’s magnificent ambient techno album Music For Real Airports and the recently released collabo with Psychick Warriors Of Gaia (as the Dadavistic Orchestra, click here for our review), with Liber Dogma, on which they return to their trademarked electro and techno sound.
TBD’s music has always had that glowing, sensual and analogue vibe to it, with soft synth waves being put over glistening keys and intellectual rhythms that seem to be nestled in the dark. In that sense, Liber Dogma can be seen as a continuation of their lauded sound, but it’s also definitely another leap forward. In TBD’s own words, the album has become a reflection of their live shows: “It’s all about red lights, a smoke machine, a single strobe, a Funktion One soundsystem... and The Black Dog. Forget the fancy lighting, the indoor scarves, the hair do’s and the hair don’ts: fuck all of that. Music is about losing yourself...”. A spot on description, to say the least.
After a broken beat opening in the form of Dark Wave Creeping, Liber Dogma lays down a collection of tracks that switch from drone-shaped cuts to electro-infused beats, four-to-the-floor techno and pretty much everything in between. Tracks such as Steam Caliphate, Drop Kick Cali and the intense big room banger Single Light Focus rely on massively thumping kicks, gnarly bass and oddly-shaped bass textures, while stand out track Hype Knot 7 turns to the delicate sound of Detroit techno for a one-of-a-kind techno bomb that will definitely end up high in the charts of every self-respecting techno fan. An album for the floors pur sang, Liber Dogma has become a dark, straight-forward, and highly captivating journey through the techno landscape, but even more so a showcase of the band’s extreme skills in creating intelligent music that tickles, mesmerizes, intrigues, and astounds its audience.
Our verdict:
Fans of the UK outfit can rest assure: Liber Dogma has everything you can possibly wish for in a techno album. It’s intense, big room in a way, but always with a somewhat unsettling twists and a constant vibe that emphasizes that ‘lose yourself-statement.’ One of the best techno albums of 2011? Most likely.
Rating: 9.0/10
Label: Soma Recordings
Release date: October 24th, 2011
Tracklist:
01. Dark Wave Creeping
02. The Death Ov The Black Sun
03. Steam Caliphate
04. Drop Kick Kali
05. Eden 353
06. The Black Maria
07. Single Light Focus
08. Silent Escape
09. Hype Knot 7
10. Bird Siren
11. Feeder Rub Out
12. Worship: The Drum
13. カークラッシュ魔術
