17/01/2024
Revisiting The Black Dog's 'Spanners' album this morning. I've never quite known what to think of this sprawling, implacable record, which despite being my introduction to the Plaid universe, boasts less of the melodic immediacy they would more brazenly turn out once the Black Dog parted ways.
Instead this goes for a more alien (as in a 90s "take me to your dealer" type of alien) collage of detuned ambient synths, head-shop syncopated rhythms, weird squiggles, and samples of people talking about extraterrestrial encounters.
Of course this was peak 1995, and the ambient japery of the Orb was still in full swing, so we can forgive some of Spanners' more hippyish indulgences. Still, the difference between 1993 and 1995 feels culturally worlds apart, so it's no wonder Plaid would change tack significantly when they split with band mate Ken Downie.
That's not to say Spanners doesn't have its charms, of course. And coming back to it, I'm surprised at how many tracks stick out that I'd previously ignored. The highlight will always be the one-two of Psil-cosyin and Chase The Manhattan; and while it's deemed very uncool these days to use the word "tribal" when talking about electronic music, these two tracks definitely milk that style of "fourth-world" techno that would garner such a description.
Unlike their later work as Plaid, melodies are hinted at, rather than indulged-in. Some might find this asceticism frustrating: more than a handful of tracks end just as they seem to be getting to where they're going. But restrained as they can be on Spanners, there are moments and snatches of pure loveliness, like on Pot Noddle, and especially the really quite lovely ambient closer Chesh.
