IDM Mailing Archive

1993-09-19 07:11808STATE@delphi.comHi everyone! I'm new to IDM, and just wanted to introduce myself. Besides 808 State, I lov

From:: <808STATE@delphi.com>
Date:: Sun, 19 Sep 1993 03:11:31 -0400 (EDT)
Subject:: Black Dog Productions

Hi everyone! I'm new to IDM, and just wanted to introduce myself. Besides 808 State, I love ambient music. Fav's include the Artificial Intelligence series on Warp, just about anything on R & S/Apollo Records like CJ Bolland and Biosphere, just about any Richie Hawtin releated product like F.U.S.E., plus the more commercial stuff like Orbital. In the latest issue of Vox magazine, they gave a rave review to the brand new cd by Black Dog Productions. Not, it's not "Bytes", but something else brand new, and Vox says it's even better then "Bytes". Not on Warp, but another label. Anyone have it yet? Paul (808STATE@DELPHI.COM)

1995-10-15 00:29CiMFound this at the new Black Dog Web site. Here's a text copy for the NetScape-less... (I s

From:: CiM <s.walley@uea.ac.uk>
To:: <idm@hyperreal.com>
Date:: Sat, 14 Oct 95 17:29:28 -0700
Subject:: Black Dog Productions

Found this at the new Black Dog Web site. Here's a text copy for the NetScape-less... (I shouldn't think Ken will mind - it clears up a few things...)

quoted 216 lines A potted history of the "Early" period

> A potted history of the "Early" period > > A lot of people have asked what makes me tick over the years. Here > for the first time, for your edification, and my retrospection, is a > brief introduction to the world of dogism. > > Since an early age, I have known that I was weird. I counted in > roman numerals when I was five. When you are young, your friends > don't percieve it as "an intelligence misapplied", you are the "geek > in the bad fitting clothes". As my friend Ed once said "You're not > the only one with problems". He's right. You pick yourself up, and > do what you can. > > To escape my fate, I joined the navy in a niave attempt to "see the > world for free". I saw a quite a bit of the world, sailed a few of > it's oceans, and retraced most of homer. Luckily I didn't have to > kill anyone, not that I would really want to. The exchange was that > I left "normal things" behind in some way. The regime featured > revolving timescales based around different routines, there were no > fixed day lengths for weeks sometimes. > > As a consequence being on dry land has never seemed "real" since. > > In 1984 I was living in Denmark, and i had a weird dream that > culminated in me painting the image of the egyptian god anubis on a > freshly plastered white wall. It's realism freaked me out. I guess > this was the first time that symbolism had popped up in such a big > way, though having read jung, i had always been aware of strange > syncronicities. I decided to read all that I could about everything, > I wanted to carry the library of alexandria around in my head, > niavely. With hindsight, this was my "white light, new age" period, > when I really thought that the ancient wisdom could change the world > if applied in the light of new understanding and technologies. > > Anyway, I was able to sharpen up my astral skills, and luckily had > observed the "messiah complex" in an unfortunate friend, so knew > what to look out for (more or less). > > Denmark also had an excellent library system, where you can get > pristine copies of old hard to get or even deleted records from the > 60's and 70's in mint condition. They have the biggest dub reggae > collection I have ever seen, and it was all free loan. Superba. > > My friends in england during this period, despite being accomplished > musicians, failed to secure any deals from record companies, and had > to either give up and get bad jobs that they didn't enjoy, or eek > out a less than full life on the state welfare system. The music > business, and life in general, can be cruel like that. > > I "woke up" to the possibility that I could produce music myself in > 1987, and having been allowed to hang out in Uncle Jim's JAMs > Kitchen at his Benio Residence, also called "Trancentral". Jim and > Bill went off to do their thing with the KLF. And Some. Prior to > this I had only engineered for some my friends bands. I loved music, > but couldn't play traditional intstruments. With technology, things > changed. > > The vibe at the time was "house IS a feeling", we were getting the > _coolest_ cuts from chicago and detroit, the tempo hadn't yet risen > above 120bpm, and everything was chill and easy. Slow Acid was sex > itself. Gay clubs were the most fun and adventurous places to hang > out then, their mix of fun, enthusiasm, and great music changed many > peoples lives and perceptions. Anyway.. > > I got (more) into computers, got an amiga, and started producing > freeware demos featuring artwork that had been done in house, and > little jingle type tunes that could be distributed on floppy disks. > Feedback from these was encouraging. The computer press got behind > us...but we were limited to what we could fit on a disk, so we > decided to make our own records, twenty five minutes of music, and > some striking cover designs. > > The Black Dog formed in 1989 after placing an advertisement for a > keyboard player in Music Technology magazine (now called "The Mix"). > Ed phoned up, struck up a conversation about how he had had his > tapes played at warehouse parties (they weren't called "raves" > then). We met and started working. We didn't have much money or > gear, because the bank had refused to loan us anything. The tunes we > produced were strange, even for us, at that time. > > A few months later, Ed brought Andy around, and he stayed. Andy > Staid? > > We tossed several names around and settled on "Cheeba Smarties" for > a week, until I suggested a name that I had been given in a dream, > "The Black Dog". Despite the initial reticence, & after allaying > their fears that the image was NOT AT ALL RACIST, it stuck. Other > people liked it too. > > Finished our first 4 tracks, and tried to secure a deal with "Black > Market Records". We had hoped to get Mr Fingers to remix one of the > tracks, but in a bizarre transatlantic telephone call, he heard the > mixes, and said, and we quote "nah, that's TOO weird for me". > > Desperation and the rent set in, so we went to see "Big Life" (big > larf) records, they giggled a lot, called our material "Soundtrack > Stuff", and completely missed the point. > > Exasperated, we decided to hire in as much equipment as we could, > and try to record a new four track EP, with the idea of releasing it > ourselves. People obviously didn't understand us, or the way our > music worked, so it looked like we were on our own, and that we had > to "do it ourselves". We recorded the "Virtual EP" in a weekend, > from beginning to end. And with much trepidation, pressed up the > first 1000 12 inchers. We hired a van, and spread them as far and > wide as we could. Luckily, the people at the grass roots level, the > underground record shops, were more tolerant, and the it shifted > pretty quickly. Some shops even took a WHOLE box (25 records) which > was amazing after the lack of "official" response we had met with. > > Repressed another 1000 due to popular demand. And then another 500 > for "export" to Germany and the Netherworld. Some people in europe > obviously liked the Black Dog Sound. Bless 'em. > > We still get email from people who like the roughness of that first > EP, and many more from people trying to track it down and find a > copy. I got one from America, where a guy had "seen it" in his > dreams like a grail vision or something, but when he got to his > local shop, they had all gone. He must have seen the last one being > sold. Bummer, eh. > > Anyway, with a modest success under our belt, it was easier for us > to ignore the "establishment" and persevere at our own methods of > music making, and indie type distribution. > > A few months later, we started on the new project. The age of Slack > EP. Indulgence set in, and sadly, it was less than it should be. > Quirky, and uptight it may be, but a "dancefloor burner" it wasn't. > Some brave DJ's still play it (big up to them), but not many. Just > 1000 of this one were made, and we barely managed to get our money > back for the next project. It taught us a valuable lesson for the > future. Nobody made any money at this point, we were begging from > our friends, doing everything we could to keep our heads above the > hypothetical water. > > The third "Black Dog EP". We were on a roll now. We could write > music that moved us much quicker than before, and soon had a whole > bunch of new material. We decided to put out a six track EP. This > gave us the most bass for DJ's, and most importantly, more tracks to > listen to. > > We were using Greyhound distribution then, a company that was doing > the "van business" for us. We are greatful for the help that they > gave us in the early days promoting our dogism in holland, belgium, > and the more understanding countries that weren't totally hypnotized > by hardcore, but one day, some arsehole (danny) informed us that he > had melted 500 of the EP because he "didn't have the shelf space". > He then went on to call me a "Cold Bastard" when I had the audacity > to ask for our money back. > > We were wiped out financially, and couldn't afford to repress. > > Luckily help (of sorts) was at hand in the form of Wayne Archbold. A > DJ friend (mark broom) introduced us to him. He was full of > enthusiasm for our sound, and said that he was starting up his own > label called GPR. He was, and is, a likable character who has been > around in dance music since the beginning. We pitched our tent next > to his, and started work on our next EP for him, the "Parallel > Squelch" EP. Amazingly, this sold 7000 copies. We were literally > "over the moon". > > Warp and R&S Records also became interested in us at this point. > Renatt paid for us to use his "techno island" studio for a week. > Amazed at the sheer amount of equipment available, and the smooth > crisp sound, we produced some of our most poignant tracks there. > With much magnitude renatt let us keep the tracks to fulfill our > recording comittment with GPR, possibly with the view of "picking us > up" later, but if so, he never did. I would like to express many > thanks to Renatt and Sabine for their generosity. The tracks saw > light of day on our "Vantool" EP, and more recently on the GPR > "Parallel Compilation Album". > > Sadly, the germs of the split manifested while working in Belgium. > Ed and Andy wanted to work on light jazzy material, and ken wanted > to start writing "things that mattered". At that point, there was > still room to accomodate all of our styles within "The Black Dog" > provided no one's ego got too large. > > Sadly, the situation got worse. Wayne being a small label, couldn't > afford to pay large advances, and the little we got didn't go very > far between the three of us and our equipment needs. All of us had > to get part time jobs. It was a horrible period. Ed and Andy ended > up virtually giving their best material away to every leech with a > label just to pay the rent. You still see those tracks touted round > the "compilation album" circuit today...and there's nothing we can > do about it. We don't see a penny from their sales. > > Wayne from GPR introduced us to Muff Winwood from Sony (he was Led > Zeppelins manager for 12 years, and we had big respect for him) with > a view to Sony helping us out with distribution, or maybe even a > "full on" deal. Sadly, try as we might, we couldn't convince him, > and he went off to sign "SunScreem" instead. > > We recorded the "Temple of Transparent Balls" album for GPR. > Originally, we were going to call it "The temple of transparent > walls" A reference to an inscription which had purportedly been > found on a shard of phoenician pottery well before the invention of > glass. Anyway, being severely disillusioned with the music industry, > we changed the "Walls" to "Balls", a miracle even jesus would be > proud of. The ToTB is in fact, yep, you guessed it, SONY HQ. > > This was to be our last project with GPR, our commitment fulfilled. > Those nice people at Warp records take care of us after that, and > released "Bytes" our first album on the concept tip. Receiving the > royalty cheque was nice. Getting paid at last after 4 years made it > worth it. A lot of people obviously bought the album and liked it. > Thanks to them for that. We paid back what we had borrowed from > people to live, and blew the rest on equipment for the new sound > that we had in mind. And none on drugs, no. :) > > "Spanners" you will probably have heard, ken is busy on new > material, and as ever, reading books. The rest has probably already > been written about, so this is where this part of the histories > ends. Thankyou for reading. > > Peace.

-- || [CiM] || s.walley@uea.ac.uk || http://www.sys.uea.ac.uk/~u9323899/