Black Dog Productions ‎– Bytes

Sometimes a certain record is so connected to us, by the most varied reasons, that any chance of making an impartial, more technical review of it is lost. If there is any record that it is for me in that situation, is Bytes. But a critique is, in the end of the day, as simple as liking or not liking, loving or hating.

Bytes was, along with B12's Electro-Soma, 808 State's Ten Years compilation and Amon Tobin's Supermodified, the first electronic music i have heard, and almost one of the first records really. Before that i was into music, mainly hip hop, but simply into it. After this i got into music in a different way, more passionate and deep, and Bytes had central relevance.
I was young and it was also the time i first had an mp3 player, and in the summer i would play these tracks while travelling with my parents, and all these sensations were something new to me. I discovered that music, especially this one, could expand my mind, kind of like it was activating parts of my brain that otherwise would be asleep. Never before i imagined it was possible to daydream, and from that moment, music started acting as a way of boosting imagination, and it has this effect on me nowadays.
But this is a story for some other moment.

After all these years, after so much new music, i listen to Bytes with completely different years, but it's still a magic experience. The Black Dog have always been alien musicians, and altough you can feel the detroit influence all over the place, there is something to it, an aura, which is the only one, the Dog touch. I still get perplexed with the sounds on Bytes though. Object Orient starts with an epic melody that grabs you, but just listen to the percussion: what the hell is going on? Where did it come from? The rattles on the background are indescribable, but give a strong spatial feel to it. Caz and Carceres Ex Novum introduce odd rhythms and signatures, so characteristic of the early Dog and Plaid as well. This last one especially, creates an almost mythical atmosphere to it, that they would later fully develop on Spanners. Tracks like Focus Mel or Olivine are closer to their detroit roots, but have a unique emotional quality to it. Fight the Hits introduces complex percussion and acid lines in the end. Merck is, from all the detroit-ish tracks, the highlight for me: minimum elements, acid line to spice it a bit and unforgettable chords. It has a very spacey feel to it, almost like they have opened the sound and let all the air escape from it. It sounds infinite. It almost makes me cry, but if there is a track that can do it is the last, 3/4 Heart. The title really is spot on, because these guys managed to extract almost an entire heart from their machines. I can't really describe this track accuratelly. It's an explosion of energetic, uplifting, weightless melodies that leave you paralized, touching yourself to confirm if it is reality you are living in, and thinking: what just happened?

The artwork on Bytes, and Spanners as well, full of computer references is really clever; these guys, and their contemporaries, have added a new dimension to music: they have awaken the machines and made them sing, and damn, do they sing well!