Let me be clear from the outset, as downtempo electronica and slightly esoteric beat making this is a strong offering from The Black Dog, whose dramatic, industrial, seething scores bristle with intent and energy, sometimes exploding in to mayhem, sometimes minimising down to the barest hint of a tune. But dance music? I hope not. I’d hate to imagine the sort of state or place I’d have to be in to start really dancing to much of this album. A very dark club maybe. Possibly shortly before an act of civil disobedience or outright violence! Though some tracks clearly lend themselves better to a jig, We Are Haunted being the most obvious example. But for the main I’d imagine I’d be sitting against a wall, dilated, chewing my teeth, going along with the pitching emotions.

Now you note that word above. Score. That’s appropriate. Little to no voices infiltrate these soundscapes and they are certainly cinematic. At times they evoke Scarface with a flash of that “The World is Yours” blimp that floats by at the end. Other times there’s hints of early MJ Cole maybe even a bit of Burial too, although that’s not to say it’s derivative but just that it treads through similar dark waters.
Two of the earlier members of this Sheffield group broke away and formed Plaid and the remaining member Ken Downie joined up with Martin and Richard to eventually make last year’s Radio Scarecrow and now this which they describe as “an attempt to capture and express our emotional frustrations, and the trials and tribulations of living in an un-democratic surveillance society.” Big words, there’s certainly the sound of angry man and frustration in here, but at the same time the lyrical absence means the most telling insights come from the titles themselves.

Later Vexations, with its surreal space dolphin pips and rising synth tracks, was one of my favourite on the album, and the elusive rationales of Skemple too. But the heart of the album, literally, is Northern Electronic Soul parts 1,2 and 3 which bridge the middle section of the album and build on each other, different referent points and perspectives on the same audio imagery, distorting by part three in to something almost unrecognisable from part 1 whilst remaining a very natural progression.

I enjoyed this album with slightly wide-eyed surprise. I enjoyed it, the left-field countenance, the bullish aggression, the scope and ambition and most of all the constantly shifting sands of emotional imagery that rolled through it. I really did find myself getting caught up in it at times, like the world faded away. And the political undertones were none too obvious (beyond the blurbs) which was all for the good since polemic does tend to make me close my mind and put the head phones down. An interesting listen, and if you want to hear something of undeniable quality that will certainly get you thinking, and may challenge your senses, this would be a great album to go to.