Bytes

Three people seem to be arguing with ideas at high speed throughout Bytes. The Black Dog keep introducing rhythmic, melodic and theoretical possibilities before the last ones have settled, making the album exhausting and exhilarating in roughly equal measure. Restlessness is the engine.

Sheffield's founding text, made before Handley and Turner left to become Plaid. Machine music with mysticism attached, and the record that proved this stuff could carry ideas without becoming a lecture.