The Black Dog – Tranklements

For TRANKLEMENTS, The Black Dog returns to Dust Science, for good, it seems, as the soft breaks of “Alien Boys” carries a funky, yet distant, electro before “Atavistic Resurgence” launches into an interstellar pattering with stabs of industrial grit. The kick drum returns for “Cult Mentality,” a smoother piece of techno, all complementary chords, but more angular melodies slide into the organ-like tones of “Hymn for SoYo.” “Pray Crash I” returns to the breaks, this time faster and more foreboding, as its sibling track, “Pray Crash II” goes full-on towards the floor, sharing the same DNA in a vocal sample. “Internal Collapse” allows for a brief respite, before the crisper “First Cut” cuts through with its sharp beat, and “Death Bingo” has a similar cleanness in its beeps and breaks. “Mind Object” twinkles a little more, even as it starts to decay into the alien drift of the closer, “Spatchka.” There’s a confidence and surety in this album, one that’s borne out by years of experience.

Each successive album since the Black Dog's rebirth in 2005 has been less interesting. Silenced was a great work of moody electronica. But now it seems like he just keeps making the same soulless, uninspired techno.