Garde Dog by Garde Dog

The tale of Garde Dog: a chronology, an obituary.

Before Tight Lines was a hotly tipped record label at the heart of Leeds’ burgeoning Jazz scene, it was a collective of friends who played in bands. There were 3 bands: Têtes De Pois, Skwid Ink, and then there was Garde Dog…

From the beginning they were a weird and beefy quintet who modeled themselves on a blend of heavy Dilla beats and funky interwoven guitar parts a la Vulfpeck. Their first live session was ‘Pineapple Rings’, filmed in drummer Josh Ketch’s bedroom in May 2016. A tune that perfectly encapsulated the band’s salad days while also garnering attention amongst the scene, leading to a flurry of shows across Leeds. ‘Pineapple Rings’ has since gained legendary status with the Dog’s dedicated fan base.

‘Pineapple Rings’, ‘Duh, Dudu’, ‘Melon Head’, ‘Banana Skins’ and ‘Best Kind of You’ (featuring The Golden Age of TV’s Bea Fletcher) are all puppy love era Garde Dog: Funky, hopeful, innocently mischievous, safely experimental. This period brought much praise and attention to the litter, though it wasn’t til later that things started getting more weird, wonderful and angsty.

It could be said that GD’s collaboration with Leeds-based MC ‘Zealey’ marked this change. The fruits of this collaboration, ‘Zeal’, is an aggressive and electrifying conscious set of verses that hits on a visceral level with Zealey spitting hard on inequality, greed and capitalism while the dogs don’t hold back the barking through the medium of feedback loops, kaleidoscopic delays and swooping oscillations.

‘Mystic Lotion’ is another example of how an old dog learnt new tricks. This time the dogs argue over a stomping counterpoint that fools the listener into thinking there’s something sample-based going on. That’s balanced out with an ethereal and contemplative B section reminiscent of the brooding crescendos found on BadBadNotGood (dog)’s album ‘III’.

By this point Garde Dog have been rabid for a while but ‘Angry Man’ really signifies that an evolution is complete, and a climax has been reached. The chromatically infused and confused wandering bass line played in octaves by bassist Owen Burns and guitarist Will Lakin provides a wonky yet driving backdrop to a cascade of haunting and spiky sonic explorations by keys player Matti Scott and guitarist Sam Carty. In classic Garde Dog fashion the chorus is a conversation between driving bass and melody, separating what was once joined. The tune returns to the bass line giving Ketch free rein to go full Questlove ‘You Got Me’, but rowdier. Suddenly a Sabbath style riff comes straight from Hell’s hatch and induces a head nod that’s actually generated from the hip. A full satanic noise explosion occurs.

The final tune on the album is ‘Black Canvas (Creating In The Night)’and features Piko Fabrisse. GD met Piko at a Re:Soul jam session when Piko got up and had a bark with the dogs. The instrumental was in fact written to be released on TLC001, Tight Lines’ first compilation record. Piko wrote the spiritually enriching lyrics as the band rehearsed in the studio and it was recorded that same night. It’s a super laid back Hip Hop chugger charged by Scott’s synth and flavored with Burns’ very naughty bass licks.

That’s it, Garde Dog’s beginning, middle and end.



This album, recorded between the 29th of February and 2nd of March 2018, though not exhaustive, encapsulates the dogs’ life from birth til death.

If the sales of this record reach high enough to facilitate a vinyl pressing, the deed shall be done, and Garde Dog will be immortalised in the physical realm.

Having started out back in ’15 as cute and innocent puppies, writing music that reflected their easy, student-loan-backed life, Garde Dog grew in to rabid dogs, with jobs, who didn’t got no time for no bullshit and their music began to say it loud.

Contact Will Lakin for enquiries : will@tightlinesmusic.co.uk