The Black Dog was founded by Ken Downie along with Ed Handley and Andy Turner. In 1989, they were unable to find a label to back their releases and had to start their own, Black Dog Productions. Their first full-length album Bytes was released on 15 March 1993. Other albums Temple of Transparent Balls and Spanners followed this first release. Their music was often produced under a number of different names, such as Close Up Over, Xeper, Atypic, I.A.O., Balil and the Discordian Popes.
In 1995, Ed and Andy left to focus on Plaid but Ken continued working as The Black Dog on his own for a while, releasing the solo album Music for Adverts. With new management, and an increased vigour, Downie then teamed up with Steve 'Hotdog' Ash and Ross Knight. Though they completed over a dozen critically acclaimed remixes during this period, only one album was ever released Unsavoury Products which featured the talents of Parisian beat poet Black Sifichi on vocals. In 2001, Downie teamed up with Richard and Martin Dust, owners of the label "Dust Science Recordings". Since then, they have started to play live again and have released eight EPs and three full-length albums on Dust Science: Silenced was released in 2005. Radio Scarecrow was released in 2008 and was very well received and nominated for DJ Mag’s Best of British 2008. Their follow-up to Radio Scarecrow, Further Vexations was released in 2009. It was described as having a dark cynicism of Orwellian practices of Government and the passivity of the general public.
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