the black dog - temple of transparent balls

now that the black dog are officially the hardest working techno collective this side of the planet (running dust science, signing on the dotted line for the new ds:93 offshoot, playing festivals all over the mudfest, releasing 2 cd set of rarities earlier in the year, and recording a new album for release later in the year etc etc), it should therefore come as no surprise that this long out of print early, pre-warp era album has been picked up by soma records, given a total sonic makeover (i.e. a remaster) and has once again been made to be listened to by all those who believe that techno is irrelevant in 2007. especially as despite this set having been made back in the early 90s, many of the 11 tracks here sound fresh and rather wonderful, the mastering has brought much of the detail to light making the music truly jump out and caress your sound system.

of course, to those that prefer cutting edge technology music with grimey beats, and distressed analogue synths, some of this will come over as dated and indeed in parts sound like a crash course in vangelis vs the orb, but when the results are on target, nothing comes near these beautiful experiments in machine made music.

from the simplistic jump-start styled ambience of opener cost, the hyperkinetic rhythms of jupiler, the delicate bleeps of sharp shooting on saturn of which i am sure orbital hammered prior to them switching on their own tape recorders, the music is constantly evolving with the layers throwing spanners (pun intended) into the workings so that the listener is rarely given a chance to feel the drag of expectation settling in.