Say Yes Dog – ‘Plastic Love’ (Out now via Diskodogs Records/Cargo)
As band opportunities go this is a simple heartwarming dozy. It was at the Fusion Festival in Germany that turned the friends into a band. Being huge fans of electronic music, the three wanted to go this festival no matter what. Sadly, Fusion was completely sold out. But Say Yes Dog had a plan. The asked a friend to film them performing, send the clip to Fusion’s organising team and unbelievably managed to get a slot at the festival. “Now we had tickets for the entire gang, but we didn’t have enough songs to fill a set. So what happened was, we sat down and wrote a couple more.” Said and done. That’s how “A Friend” came to be.
‘Which brings us very neatly towards the debut album by Berlin trio Say Yes Dog entitled ‘Plastic Love’. The first of twelve, ‘Talk’ sets out a stall of current electro fare, given an edge with the lyric delivery and narrative, think laced pop and you’d be wrong although Say Yes Dog’s style on opening tracks will appeal to many. take songs like ‘Hold Me’ or ‘How’ for further evidence of appeal, you may even want to start crowd-funding for the band a drummer or percussionist, but that aside, some of the keyboard sounds easily offset any percussive shortcomings.
‘Plastik’ is more of a retro tinged in design, still fitting tied with another classy vocal. ‘A Friend’ is more musically dramatic and busier, screams of single, it’s in the backing vocals that may just give it away. Followed by ‘Stronger’ which is another winner. Add to that ‘Open Wide’ and of course ‘Girlfriend’ both sound the part on ‘Plastic Love’.
Say Yes Dog walk are walking a narrowing path without straying into pop-trash, instead their debut album has enough invention and style to convince many, including being confirmed for this year’s influential Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, suggest some sort of upwards direction and who are we to argue? Pleased ‘Plastic Love’ delivers, good Electro even indie tinged, just stay away from all things Barbie. A worthwhile 7.8/10
Steve Janes