The Black Dog Founder Ken Downie has Passed Away

The Black Dog, which Ken Downie started in 1989, was responsible for some of the more experimental electronic music of the acid house explosion.

Anyone connected to the roots of early UK rave is mourning the death of Ken Downie, who founded experimental dance music outfit The Black Dog. No cause of death has been given at the time of writing.

The group’s surviving members broke the news in posts across social media platforms. “It’s with great sadness and a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Ken Downie on 20/12/25,” reads one. “Rest In Peace brother, you will be deeply missed and never forgotten. Our condolences to Sheena and his family.”

Ken Downie had famously formed The Black Dog as a home for his more boundary-pushing fare in 1989. Ed Handley and Andy Turner would later join the group, releasing a handful of EPs before their first studio-length album, Bytes, landed on the legendary Warp Records in 1993.

The Black Dog arrived at a time when new sounds in electronic music were reaching the masses at a breakneck pace, and innovators had started to think beyond dancefloors. Subsequent albums like 1993’s Temple of Transparent Balls and 1995’s Spanners fit into an ambient-inflected style of techno growing popular as the dust settled from the acid house explosion.

Handley and Turner left in 1995 to focus on a duo project called Plaid. In 2001, current members Martin and Richard Dust joined the group, ushering in a new era with album’s like Silenced in 2005 and Radio Scarecrow in 2008. Their most recent effort was Loud Ambient, an EP that arrived in November 2025.

We here at EDM Identity express our sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of Ken Downie during what can only be a difficult time.