Woof.

FAT DOG - WOOF. 
Red
1-LP Holland
Rock / Alternative
Download Code, Coloured Vinyl
"When the chaotic south London rabble known as Fat Dog formed, they made two rules: they were going to be a healthy band who looked after themselves and there would be no saxophone presence in their music. Two simple edicts to live by, and two things long-since broken by the Brixton five-piece. Fat Dog are the most exciting breakthrough band of the past few years, conjurers of the sort of frenzied and wild live shows not seen in the capital for years and now the creators of WOOF., a brilliant and mind-bending debut album, but they are not healthy. One of them has a foot odour problem. And they also have a saxophone player in the line-up. “Yeah, it’s all gone out the fucking window,” says frontman and squadron leader Joe Love, real name Joe Love.

Life is too short to stick to any plans you made in the unsettling, strait-jacketed times of 2021 anyway. That was when Fat Dog came together, Love deciding to form a group and take the demos he had been making at home as a way to keep himself sane during lockdown out into the world. In Chris Hughes (keyboards/synths), Ben Harris (bass), Johnny Hutchinson (drums) and Morgan Wallace (keyboards and, umm, saxophone), Love found like-minded mavericks to help bring the dream home. “A lot of music at the moment is very cerebral and people won’t dance to it,” says Hughes. “Our music is the polar opposite of thinking music.”

Hughes should know. He was a fan of the band, at that point making a name for themselves with a series of exhilarating and/or wonky shows across south London, before he was in the band. Those formative gigs formed the bedrock of what Fat Dog were all about, seizing the moment, drinking too much with the moment, going home separately from the moment but making up with the moment again the next day.

It didn’t take long for the kennel-dwellers to come flocking, every Fat Dog show in London becoming a huge upgrade on the last. They sold out the Scala last October and, by the time you read this, they will have done the same at the 1500-capacity Electric Brixton. There is something deeper going on here than the usual punter-goes-to-gig situation. Everyone is in on it. “There’s a sense of community about Fat Dog,” says Hutchinson. Recently, the band completed an ecstatically received tour of the US that included an all-conquering set at a taco joint. No lunches were harmed.

The sound Fat Dog make, Love says, is screaming-into-a-pillow music. “I wanted to make something ridiculous because I was so bored,” he declares. It’s a thrilling blend of electro-punk, rock’n’roll snarling, techno soundscapes, industrial-pop and rave euphoria, music for letting go to. Produced by Joe Love, James Ford and Jimmy Robertson, WOOF. passes by in a flash. On “Clowns”, Fat Dog sound like a 2 Tone band booked to play an end of the world party in 2076. “I am the King” sounds like a cross between Vangelis and Underworld and is possibly the world’s only poignant song to namecheck The Karate Kid Part II whilst “Closer to God” resembles The Prodigy riding a sandworm in Dune. “All the Same” could be Nine Inch Nails having a nervous breakdown. The unhinged, hook-heavy rave-pop of “Running” sounds like a riot at a circus and of course, their sprawling debut single “King of the Slugs” has made the cut. Other influences include Bicep, I.R.O.K., Kamasi Washington and the Russian experimental EDM group Little Big.

The album is a visit into the mind of Joe Love - be thankful you have only been granted a temporary pass. “Music is so vanilla,” says Love. “I don’t like sanitised music. Even this album is sanitised compared to what’s in my head. I thought it would sound more fucked up.”