“George Orwell’s house band”
“Leg Puppy are a club night with a conscience”
“miners of the Zeitgeist”
Since Paul F Cook’s first review of the album A Guide to Social Distancing in 2020 Leg Puppy have been featured many more times. What sets them apart from a lot of electronic acts is their ability to get you thinking as much as they get you dancing. Over the years they have aimed their one and zeros and weaponised their arpeggios at a multitude of topics that make modern life weird, wonky and frustrating. People who use selfie-sticks on ‘Selfie Stick (Narcissistic Prick)’, people who have their phone speaker on full volume in public on ‘Phone Twat’, algorithms on ‘Algorithms You’re an Arsehole’, pay-per-click marketing on ‘Your Profile is Dope’, Boris Johnson on ‘Big Posh Prick (Fuck Boris)’, and most recently the plight of working people with years of loyal service being cast aside by automation and AI on ‘Lanyard Man’.
The band will be celebrating their 10-year anniversary with a show at London’s Dublin Castle on Friday 25th September (tickets here), the venue that they have made their home when promoting the ELECTRONIQ music nights which have featured some of the cream of current electronic music such as Lia Mice, Sophie Sirota, Radarbase, nównøis, Cabin Madrid, and many more. Leg Puppy said, “There are so many undiscovered artists in electronic music. I wanted my Electroniq events to showcase the most interesting ones.”
We asked Leg Puppy what the best thing about being a band called Leg Puppy was:
“Leg Puppy changed my life in unexpected ways, what began as a joke led to new friendships and a real education in how to make music forming a new a identify in the process”
Below are highlights of our Leg Puppy coverage so, jump into the Leg Puppy/Joyzine time machine and celebrate all those years of electronic goodness, speaking truth to power, and creepy clown dances.
A GUIDE TO SOCIAL DISTANCING (2020)
Leg Puppy are a club night with a conscience. They are as willing to tickle your pleasure centre as much as wanting to challenge the listener’s principles. EDM is usually about escape from reality and, while this is often the perfect outcome, it’s refreshing to have electronica combined with a keen sense of humanity.
PAYCHECK (TAKE MY LIFE) – (2020)
An antonym to the misguided optimism of ‘Viva Las Vegas’. It starts with a title card that proclaims, “There are 1.4 million problem gamblers in the UK alone, are betting companies and the Betting Watchdog doing enough?”. Troubled by a friend of the band who became addicted and lost everything Leg Puppy“…wrote the track as a protest against all the betting shops that rip away the soul from our high streets.”
(DETROIT) BITTERSWEET SOCIAL DISTANCING (2020)
Leg Puppy talk about ‘Detroit’ being influenced by Berlin Techno and the music festival Love Parade and, to my ears, I also hear a dark trawl through the moody end of trip-hop; think Kruder & Dorfmeister around the time of The K&D Sessions. Apart from a swirling neon-desert hiatus in the middle, track is broad and deep and features a 4-on-the-floor stomp and the odd ability to seem fast and slow at the same time; no mean feat.
LEG PUPPY VS DICEPEOPLE (2020)
Dicepeople have taken Leg Puppy’s shiny diamonds and transmuted them into darkest jet and this PVC-swathed set of remixes allow their darker side to undulate in an inky blackness.
A GUIDE TO SOCIAL REMIXING (2021)
Leg Puppy have thrown open their digital cupboards to allow a host of remixers to shine some dark into the light of their tracks. On offer are mixes by the likes of Dicepeople, Thommo, Aka and Gnoomes.
LEG PUPPY ON COMMUNITY, CINEMA AND SPAM BOTS (2021)
Leg Puppy released new single ‘Your Profile Is Dope’ on Friday, a two fingered salute to instagram spam bots, fake Spotify curators and the soulless aresholes who proliferate them. Following his video chat with Leg Puppy last week, John Clay went back to find out more.
YOUR PROFILE IS DOPE (2021)
Leg Puppy chat to John Clay about their new single.
LEG PUPPY ON CHALLENGING ONLINE ABUSE WITH MUSIC AND MASKS (2021)
“I do think humour – however uncomfortable it makes the viewer feel – is a good way of getting a message across. It should not be taken literally! I guess my disclaimer would be, this video is by no means intended to offend anyone and should not be taken literally. Just enjoy it, do the dance and have fun!“
THE AIR IN UTOPIA IS POISON (2021)
The Air in Utopia is Poison has the band train their laser sights on, amongst other things, disembodied members – ‘Dick Pic (open that inbox)’, the insidious practice of musicians being asked to pay to get onto playlists – ‘Your Profile is Dope’ and their hatred of the digital knotweed of being followed around the internet by the information that has been gathered about us – ‘Algorithms You’re an Arsehole‘.
WARM LEATHERETTE (2022)
If you’re going to tackle this track you had better not fumble the ball and Leg Puppy don’t disappoint. They take it back to the dystopian, industrial feel of the original but beef up the low end enough to rattle the brackets of a nightclub’s speakers. This leatherette isn’t just warm, it’s so darned hot it should only be listened to after the watershed.
FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY (2023)
Leg Puppy are no strangers to shining their black light on modern culture in order to illuminate the invisible nastiness clinging to its shiny artifice. However, they show you the bad so you can aim to do good and, as the title advises, feel the fear and do it anyway.
PHONE TWAT (2024)
Leg Puppy have recently rebooted themselves as Leg Puppy 2.0. Their operating system has been given an upgrade and they are now working at optimal efficiency with a shiny new interface and without AI to muddy their creative waters…The lyrics might not grace literature prize shortlists, but I have no doubt they’ll resonate with plenty of people who will nod their agreement to lines like “headphones, headphones buy a pair of headphones, no one wants to hear your boring chat. Phone Twat” and “Volume high, a disregard for space. Your ignorance is in my face“.
FIVE OUTFITS THAT HAVE INSPIRED ME (2026)
As Leg Puppy prepare to celebrate their 10 year anniversary they told us about the five acts that have inspired them.
LANYARD MAN (2026)
With menacing synth-pulses and string like stabs ‘Lanyard Man’ does what Leg Puppy 2.0 do best, create an unsettling backdrop on which to build lyrics with inbuilt sneer: “Thirty years, the keys, the grind, a faithful cog, a loyal mind” and “Thirty years, then told goodbye, replaced by code, he wants to die”. This is a look at a life that is every bit as plastic and disposable as the lanyard itself.
The full Leg Puppy discography is available here.
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