The Black Dog - Radio Scarecrow

While many saw the Black Dog's reissuing of their back catalogue on Soma last year as some kind of sellout, their first album proper for Slam & co should silence any naysayers, demonstrating that they can still make passionate, experimental music you can have a wee dance to. Infusing classic Detroit techno beats with shimmering melodies, melancholic soundscapes and brilliantly deployed found-sounds, Radio Scarecrow begins slowly, rising through the marathon two-part Train By the Autobahn, before launching into the full-blown, clubby monster, Riphead v9. While maintaining a coherent motion throughout the album, Radio Scarecrow amalgamates a number of elements, and The Black Dog's ability to unite the experimental glitch and EVP sounds with the kind of potent technoid stomp that makes lesser imitators piss themselves is truly unique. It's a cliché to call this 'thinking man's music', but Radio Scarecrow unfolds a myriad of new elements on every listen, revealing new sounds, textures and musical ideas. [Liam Arnold]