The recent Afterglow album displayed even more extreme cinematic atmospheres along with Martin Wheeler’s increasingly-spotlit melancholic vocals. Three of these vocal tracks have been plucked off the album, two reworked to stunning effect by Martin and the Black Dog. The latter provide the lead track, a blissful breakbeat take on ‘Hush Now’, which harks back to their early forays with lush textures and intricate melodic layers. The Dog are on a roll right now as their truly frightening new single, which raises the techno bar once more will demonstrate. But so’s Martin, who takes the gorgeously poignant delicacy that is ‘Piano Dust’ off his album [also included here] and turns it into a soft, padding piece of suction-minimal, heightening the melody. Finally ‘Genevieve’ goes deep and grunting with bass to empty a hippo’s bowels counteracted by the plaintive vocal. Signing off a great year, what’s he going to get up to in 2008?
5 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Kris Needs
