In this tribute, Robin Rimbaud (Scanner) reflects on the passing of Ken Downie—founding member of The Black Dog—whose absence leaves a rare and resonant silence in electronic music, shaped by intelligence, restraint, and a belief that machines could think, feel, and remember.
Your signals are still traveling
It’s been very touching reading the tributes to the late Ken Downie, founding member of the electronic music ensemble The Black Dog, who recently passed way. As a founding presence within The Black Dog, Ken helped carve a language that refused easy spectacle, and his passing leaves a quiet, resonant space in electronic music—one shaped by intelligence, restraint, and an unwavering belief that machines could think, feel, and remember.
This was a very different time for electronic music — austere yet humane, analytical yet deeply emotional. Long before “IDM” was a label, The Black Dog were already questioning time, systems, architecture, politics—asking how sound could reflect the inner workings of a changing world. Indeed, my first contact with Ken was on the bulletin board system he ran called Black Dog Towers in the early 1990s.
Before timelines, before feeds, before the endless scroll, there were BBSs, which were the secret rooms of the early digital underground—places to swap messages, share files, trade ideas, flirt with code, and feel briefly elsewhere. It’s a time when dial-up tones served as an overture, and pixelated menus as portals. They were slow fragile, gloriously awkward—and utterly formative and I found it such a thrill to connect with like-minded souls.
These were times defined by curiosity, connection, and the thrill of logging into something that felt truly yours. We would chat online about all manner of things. My username was “Shadow,” and to this day I continue to meet people for the first time whom I first chatted with over 35 years ago.
Even though our paths only rarely crossed in the real world, Ken’s work was a compass: pointing away from trends and toward integrity. Toward curiosity. Toward futures imagined with care rather than conquest. The Black Dog have continued in different forms over the years and continue to remain innovative and inspirational. Their music remains, for me, timeless.
Thank you, Ken, for the discipline, the depth, and the quiet fire. Your signals are still traveling.
Loud Ambient is available on Dust Science. [Bandcamp]
