Officially a compilation featuring Plaid, Balil, Xeper, I.A.O. and more, due to some contract fuckries, ‘Bytes’ is still effectively Black Dog Productions’ debut album masterpiece. Like many of their generation, it was heavily influenced by the futureshock of Detroit techno, deep house from Chicago, and NYC electro, but mutated in translation to British dancefloors.

It serves to seed the influential careers of its various units, who would diverge not long after its release, but stands as a resounding example of their combined energies, especially in classic numbers such as Xeper’s sublime downbeat groover ‘Carceres Ex Novum’, and a version of AI series classic in I.A.O.’s breakbeat techno archetype ‘The Clan (Mongol Hordes)’, the mind-bending intricacies of ‘Yamemm’, or Balil’s beauties, ‘Merck’ and ‘3/4 Heart’ that still trip up DJs today.