The Black Dog: Spanners

I was almost certainly late to pick up on it, but suddenly, around 1994, I became aware of a flood of this kind of stuff, and it was christened Intelligent Dance Music. I couldn't keep up with it, and I used the old Mixing It programmes as one of my filters. I think they may have said something complimentary about The Black Dog, which prompted me to buy this album. That and a general desire to support Warp, whom, more than Pulp or the Longpigs, we thought of as Sheffield's musical success story at the time.

There are tracks I like: Further Harm and Chesh appealed on this listening. Last week I got an email from Bleep's mailing list that says, "One of the all time great electronica albums, Spanners ranges from the stately futuristic chamber music of Chesh, to the incredible acid house in a souk of Psycosyin, a track that still kicks hard twelve years after it's release." Which just makes me feel I'm exposing my ignorance here, having never found as much in this music as I thought there ought to be. Remember I'd grown up on Tangerine Dream, so I should have had an ear for these kinds of sounds. I've just never found enough to keep me interested.

MusicBrainz entry for this album