What is "spanners"

n. (plural of spanner English)

Spanners is a music album by IDM artists Ken Downie, Ed Handley and Andy Turner aka The Black Dog which was released in 1995 on double vinyl, cassette and CD.
It became a landmark in the ever changing cross-pollination of musical genres that was loosely referred to as "the dance scene". It also became their most commercially successful album with its blend of hip hop beats, Latin infused rhythms, and almost junglist percussion patterns. Some tracks like "Chesh" even got compared to classical music, even by Ken Downie himself: "Ed wrote it and he says it's based on 'tipareth', a sphere on the tree of life. I guess you can't get more classical than that."
Despite Spanners' success, tensions started to emerge in the Dog camp and in mid July 1995 it was announced that Ed Handley and Andy Turner would be leaving to start work on their own material.