Review
Genre and Mood
Say Yes Dog’s “Plastik” is synth-pop and electro-pop made for dancing. It is catchy and groovy, the side of the trio’s debut album that faces the dance floor.
Song Summary
“Plastik” is the fourth track of Plastic Love, released on 4 September 2015 by Diskodogs Records, and Black Plastic presented it as the album’s new single. Its title names the material that, as the Dutch site Festivalinfo noticed, the album’s lyrics keep coming back to: plastic, even liquid plastic. Vanguard heard Plastic Love as a journey into the uncertainty of devotion, and singled out “Plastik” and the first single, “Stronger”, for synth phasing that gives them a tone of presence.
Musical Breakdown
No source we found walks through “Plastik” from beginning to end, so this breakdown stays with what reviewers said about its sound and about the album around it.
The Synths
Phasing synths, in Vanguard’s description, give the song its presence. Festivalinfo heard synthesizers as the main thread running through every song on the record.
The Beat and the Bass
Under them, Festivalinfo heard static computer beats with groovy basslines added, and named “Plastik” among four songs that work as well on the dance floor as in an art studio or an arcade.
The Details
Festivalinfo found the album’s eleven songs close in instrumentation and structure, but heard small percussion details and playful countermelodies keeping them interesting.
Concepts in Focus
The synthesizer is the band’s main voice besides Aaron Ahrends’. Phasing, the effect Vanguard heard here, makes a sound sweep and shimmer as copies of it move in and out of step, and it gives a held synth part movement without a single new note.
groove is what Festivalinfo heard when it named this song for the dance floor: a steady beat and a bassline locking together. Compare the more anxious use of the same elements in Say Yes Dog – Talk, which opens the album.
Artistic Context
Say Yes Dog is a German-Luxembourgish electro-pop trio of Aaron Ahrends (vocals), Paul Rundel (bass) and Pascal Karier (drums), who met studying sound engineering and jazz at the conservatory in The Hague. Plastic Love, recorded in a studio in Haarlem, followed their 2013 EP A Friend; on “Plastik” all three are credited as writers and Ahrends as producer. Festivalinfo heard Kraftwerk and Hot Chip behind it.
Impact and Reception
Reviews of Plastic Love were warm but reserved. Vanguard called it an impressive debut, upbeat without being cheesy; Black Plastic heard huge promise; Festivalinfo heard nothing new but a light, fresh electropop record for almost any moment. Put “Plastik” on and judge which of them was right.
