Temple of Transparent Balls [Import]

Black Dog | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 23, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: 101 DISTRIBUTION
• ASIN: B000VEA2M6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #606,264 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

`Temple Of Transparent Balls' was the first album released by The Black Dog on the avant-garde, forward-thinking GPR label in 1993, two years before their signing with Warp Records. At this time the album was a blueprint for the emerging UK techno scene and even to this day sounds as futuristic as ever. Lost in time, the album has now been refreshed and given a new lease of life in the digital age, completely remastered, playing to new ears, finding new fans, and at the same time carrying nostalgia for those already familiar with the Black Dog sound. Tracks like `4,7,8' display the side of Black Dog that loves to experiment and play with the listener's expectations. With the track in a 7/8 time signature, an alien concept to much of dance music, you find yourself drawn in by the complexity of the rhythms and mesmerised by the haunting melody. Meanwhile, tracks like the breakbeat madness that is `Mango' and `The Actor And Audience' exhibit a playfulness to The Black Dog's work suggesting the group took a great deal of enjoyment from their inventiveness. In stark contrast to these, `Kings Of Sparta ' and album-finisher `The Crete That Crete Made' are darkly ambient, peacefully insane. As Ken Downie of the group states, ''20 years or 200 years, it makes no difference how old a tune is, a good tune is a good tune''. His words certainly ring true for this timeless classic.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Black Dog, The - Temple Of Transparent Balls, February 21, 2011

By 

scoundrel - See all my reviews

This review is from: Temple of Transparent Balls (Audio CD)

Even though The Black Dog's electronic tinkerings on Temple of the Transparent Balls might sound primitive today, their mastery of abstract melodies is nonetheless influential. On this, their first album for GPR, they deliver forward-thinking techno that most musicians would give their left ear for. Listen to the wistful "Cost II" or the interplanetary funk of "Jupiler" for concrete examples. A few of the tracks lean towards the ambient side of things (the melancholy "Kings of Sparta" or the gorgeously wobbly "The Crete that Crete Made," for instance), but their keen sense of melody keep them from drifting off into nothingness. An early album to be sure, but one that is astonishing anyway.