Adopting the common euphemism for depression as their name, The Black Dog are often credited with "inventing" the "IDM" style of music, in producing a style of dance music equally enjoyable in the comfort of one's living room. While their work was showered with praise from a great number of club DJs, the DJs themselves rarely played their tracks on the dancefloor.

The group was founded by Ken Downie along with Ed Handley and Andy Turner, who had already been producing music under the Plaid moniker. 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 in 1992 on WARP Records, the label later to publish records from some of the most notable of IDM artists, such as Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, and Autechre. Their music was often produced under a number of different names, such as Close Up Over, Xeper, Atypic, I.A.O., Balil and Discordian Popes. These were often names for the different projects of the three artists.

Later on (1994), Ed and Andy broke off from Black Dog Productions, to work full-time on Plaid. Ken Downie continued working The Black Dog on his own for a while, taking it easy, later to return to music production with Richard and Martin Dust, owners of the label "Dust Science Recordings". Since, they have released fourteen EPs and four full-length albums.

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