Album Review: Plastic Love - Say Yes Dog

Say Yes Dog were a band formed out of necessity. Unable to score any tickets to Germany's Fusion festival then just bandmates-to-be Aaron, Pascal and Paul asked a friend to video them playing music, submitting the video in an attempt to get a spot performing. That got them in, but left them needing to write enough songs to fill a set. The end result was their 2013 EP A Friend, and now their debut album Plastic Love.

Say Yes Dog create the kind of introspective electronic pop records fans of Hot Chip and Metronomy swoon over. If there is a clear difference between the Say Hes Dog and those bands it is that the production on Plastic Love favours function over form.

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Plastic Love - Say Yes Dog

The bouncy electronic melodies on single Stronger feel like they are there in support of the band's vocal harmonies - propelling the track whilst making space for those big hooks. The electronic instrumentation is still a core part of the band's appeal - it just feels a little less contrived, clean and timeless where others mimic and riff.

Plastic Love is packed with a kind of bespectacled and studious style of music. Ernest, eager and emotionally open - on Hold Me falsetto vocals croon "Hold me tonight before I give myself up" recreating a heartfelt plea for support. You Want My Love attempts to assert confidence in its refrain of "you want my love so bad / I want your love so bad" yet the lyrics elsewhere betray a nervous feeling of love slipping gently slipping through your fingers.

And so Plastic Love will appeal to fans of a certain style of emotive electronic pop. Much like the early work of their aforementioned contemporaries it doesn't feel like this debut album has enough to stand-out as a crossover album... The sophisticated pop ambitions hinted at on Stronger, Girlfriend and the beautifully vulnerable Before I Go are never quite realised in full... Yet that almost makes me appreciate this album more - it is a simple, touching mission statement from a band with huge promise... An album made for gloomy autumnal evenings, cherished memories, pining and ransom pangs of mild melchanoly. 

Plastic Love is released this Friday via Diskodogs Records / Cargo, order through iTunes. Check out new single Plastik below:

PLASTIK is taken from the debut album PLASTIC LOVE which will be released on the 4th of September Pre-order here: smarturl.it/SayYesDogPlasticLove // produced&recorded by Say Yes Dog and Shai Solan at Helmbreker Studios, Haarlem // mixed by Ash Workman

Stream: We Go Back - Chinah

I've already blogged about Chinah twice in the past six weeks but as long as they keep brining the tunes I'm going to keep sharing them. We Go Back is the band's sophomore track and follow-up to Away From Me. 

Another bedroom production effort, We Go Back sounds even more impressive than the Nørrebro, Copenhagen based groups' debut track. This new song is still a glittering track full of cool muted guitars and softly hushed vocals but here those elements are paired with some serious analogue-style synths... The first half of the track is lush, but everything from the bridge the kicks in after 3-plus-minutes is just golden. 

Check the band out when they play London's New Shapes night on 2 September. Get tickets here.

your moves affect my style your lips atract the carefree light I see those lines we never say those times you lick my shoulderblades instead your moves affect my style your lips atract the carefree light I see we don't recall the names it's not to be described and we don't try whenever you want me we go back to we go back to you I'm caught in the sky we can touch it every time we'll talk but never tell some words will fit your world but not your mind it's all about these hights it's all about the breath we can't control Whenever you want me we go back to we go back to you I'm caught in the sky we can touch it every time don't give me up don't give me up, oh baby

Video / Download: Bones - Young Karin

Bones is a fantastic new track and video from Icelandic art-pop act Young Karin. Young Karin were formed back in 2013 when Karin Sveinsdóttir met Logi Pedro Stefánsson at an Icelandic talent show. Having released their debut EP N1 on Pannonica in 2014 the band have recently unleashed new EP PYK as a free download. Bones is the lead track from that release and you can check out the video below. I can't get enough of this track and can't recommend it higher:

EP Review: Page One Is Love - Aeroplane

Back when Aeroplane were a duo they felt a little bit untouchable, their early EPs on Eskimo marking them out as leaders in the newly emerged rebirth of disco. The eponymous Aeroplane, Pacific Air Race and Whispers all carving out a loose, organic take on house and disco that eskewed the previously prevailing artificial funky house sound.

Once Stephen Fasano left to leave remaining member Vito de Luca to continue operating under the same name it felt a little like the directions that could be pursued exploded. Single We Can't Fly was more eclectic, a dub-influenced track that retained the unmistakably Balearic sound of Aeroplane's early EPs but applied to a maximalist template. 

We are four years on from the release of debut album In Flight Entertainment and it feels like de Luca is re-embracing a more restrained sound, albeit applied to a more straight-up classic house template. On the heels of his collaboration with Benjamin Diamond, the title track of Page One Is Love sees Aeroplane team up with original house innovator Jamie Principle, and together they create something that sounds like it has been taken out of Frankie Knuckle's song book. Keys pound out a repeated uplifting refrain, with the track riding a warm four-four beat. De Luca undoubtedly adds a little modern polish - the track infuses that irresistible vintage house sound with perfect modern production to create a little slice of summer for your ears.

Dancing With Each Other follows a very similar template, to the extent that it could probably be mistaken for a re-imagining of the title track. Female vocals are woven into the track like an additional instrument and the track features an irresistible distorted synth in the final third that couldn't sound more White Isle of it tries. 

A remix of each track features. Cassara's take on Page One Is Love includes a shuffling US garage beat and closely looped piano melody but it lacks the heart of the original. The Ten Ven version of Dancing With Each Other fares better, carving out a clipped tech-house track that plays with filters to create some gorgeous drops. 

It is great to hear Aeroplane putting out music again and the straight up quality of the title track feels like a winning balance of nostalgia and modern house. The two original tracks here are arguably too similar to know whether de Luca has lots more to deliver, but as a standalone release this feels a bit like some of those early Eskimo releases, albeit drawing more now from classic house than disco.

Page One Is Love is out now on Eskimo Recordings, preview the title track below:

Stream: Earned It (The Weeknd Cover) - Monogem

Check out this cover of The Weeknd's single (from Fifty Shades Of Grey) Earned It, by LA musician Monogem. Real-name Jen Hirsh, Monogem turns the original into a thick and syrupy synth-heavy electronic R&B record and I can't help but prefer this version, it's just plain class.

Equally great is Monogem's current single Wait and See, a slow and beautiful electropop record. Listen to Earned It below, then check out the video for Wait and See further down. You can catch Monogem live in LA on September 1st for Tunesday's acoustic music series at the Soho Mondrian.