Eno designed his original Music For Airports as an attempt to defuse and calm the eternal airport bustle. Now The Black Dog have taken a detour from their usual symphonic beat-driven missives to join forces with interactive artists Human to present a modern retort, more concerned with presenting the different aspects of the airport as a microcosm of human life all concentrated into one space for limited periods of time. Writing music in airport waiting lounges while capturing over 200 hours of field records [no smoking announcements, etc], The Dog run the emotional gamut, on tracks with names like ‘Passport Control’ and ‘Business Car Park 9’. The music is mainly ambient, weightless and pulsing, blessed with the stately melodic sensibility which has always imbued their work, boiling over with metallic techno clatter and booming beats on ‘Strip Light Hate’ but gliding into a dream-like swirl of refracted voices and austere melancholy on ‘Delay 9’. The two ‘Sleep Deprivation’ excursions unfurl haunting melodies, countered by the alien rhythm patterns of ‘Future Delay Thinking’. Ultimately, the project works as both old school techno concept album or sublime piece of Black Dog-style sonic sculpting. They really are out on their own.
5 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Kris Needs
