This is the best work of Black Dog, and Black Dog truly is one of of the best electronica-techno-ambient-you-name-it acts of the past decade. They were in many ways precursors of Autechre in exploring polyrythms. Also, they have great compositional skills: their melodies and loops are never trivial, a quality that has been preserved in the CDs of Plaid. There are quotations and influences of middle eastern music soul, folk and previous electronica (sampled voices a la Orb and Eno), but they are never obstrusive: this is original music, not a danceable repackaging of some ethnic tape recorded in Central Africa. What is unique to BD is that their are multifaceted but still having a unique identity. For example there is a well definite "Autechre sound", which is always very consistent, and the same holds for Seefeel, or Boards of Canada, or Squarepusher; in all these cases excellent music. But in my humble opinion only AFX and Black Dog/Plaid and Richard D. James are able to span over such a wide palette of styles without losing their identity or "selling out". Only because of this, I would recommend this album to any electronica fan.
Good electro/Techno styles from the funky to more atmospheric tracks, at times slightly too quirky for it's own good, but nonetheless highly inovative and original, as always from black dog.
Inoffensive and good to have on in the background. For descerning listening there is not much of provocative meat on the bones of this lap dog. Still, recommended.