Turn the Dark Off

Turn the Dark Off is a less repetitive work than his first album, Music for Babies.[1] Whereas Music for Babies contained exclusively instrumentals, Turn the Dark Off contains a single vocal track, "Take Your Partner by the Hand". In an interview with Jockey Slut magazine, Howie revealed that the vocals were added upon request; after he had finished the album and had sent the CD out, Robbie Robertson rung Howie up and told him he wanted to add vocals to the song.[5] Other tracks contain assorted grunts and other non-coherent vocal noises.[6]

Prior to release, Howie had worked with U2 for their 1997 album, Pop[1] and with Björk for her third studio album, Post.[7] Howie had previously worked with U2 on their compilation album, Original Soundtracks 1.[8] To produce the album, he used, among other things, a turntable and a Nord Lead.[5]

"Angels Go Bald:Too" was released as the lead single in July 1997 and charted at #36 on the UK Singles Chart.[3] Three months later, "Switch" was released and suffered from a sophomore slump, stalling at #62.[3] In February 1998, Howie released the one vocal song from the album, "Take Your Partner by the Hand", which charted at #74.[3]

Critical reception was mixed. John Bush of AllMusic said that the album "fits in with the crop of late-'90s big beat maestros; though it doesn't quite outdistance the pack, the album still contains enough of Howie B's studio tweaks to make it worthwhile".[1] Electronicmusic.com concurred, suggesting that it might be "one of the coolest CD's to have in your collection this summer" and that it was "full of wonderful moments".[9] In addition, New Musical Express described it as a high Ennio Morricone-esque "warm, dripping collage of beats and buzzing melodies" that was "a pleasant change of pace from the cut-and-paste formula of other popular rock-techno acts".[4]

However, Jim DeRogatis gave the album a negative review, dismissing it as a "Whitman's Sampler of current electronic sounds", adding that "Howie would have been better off focusing his considerable talents to hone a particular sound, as he did on Music for Babies, rather than dabbling half-heartedly in a lot of them".[10] Matt Diehl was even less kind, finishing a diatribe by calling it a "techno turnoff".[11]