The Black Dog – Liber Dogma

While The Black Dog’s early-90s IDM peers tend to have pursued either bewilderingly expansive realms in their later releases (Autechre, Aphex Twin), or struggled to develop their sound beyond its initial bases (LFO), The Black Dog have tenaciously stuck to a form of purist techno that has proved to be remarkably fertile. Having brought out that sound’s brooding, downtempo side on last year’s Music for Real Airports, on Liber Dogma they return to a dancefloor-oriented approach.
 
The album’s great strength is in its sense of narrative progression: tracks are seamlessly interwoven, avoiding the stuttering feel that afflicts so many dance LPs, and shift between the floating textures of Dark Wave Creeping to the arpeggio-led intensity and crashing snares of Single Light Focus. Liber Dogma is the sound of a band in complete command of their form, evincing an assuredness that only an astute awareness of techno’s history could produce.