No No Yeah Okay formed in 2014 and quickly endeared Milwaukee to its indie-leaning electronic style by way of 2015’s Dual, which garnered its fair share of local airplay, streams in the hundreds of thousands, and even some awards. Despite its promising start, which continued into 2016 with lofty festival slots other exciting opportunities, No No Yeah Okay’s status as a band floated into the territory of “maybe” among locals of late, as the quartet’s recorded output and live outings slowed significantly. As it turns out, they weren’t done. They were just busy.
Today, No No Yeah Okay released Cabal, the group’s sophomore EP, on Little Assembly (a Los Angeles-based label). The five-song release is named for a term describing a group that’s unified under one shared idea or theme, and the EP is just that.
“We don’t paint pretty pictures of a glamorous life, we don’t create party anthems, or sing about abstract concepts that anyone could sing about,” No No Yeah Okay producer Mark Gage says in a press release. “The lyrics come from experiences and are delivered in a way that ties to a larger narrative; the concept for the project.”
Gage says the overriding concept is identity, and that seems to shine through in Cabal‘s overall sound. Every song seems to flow effortlessly into the next, each one adhering to the tenets of relaxed and lush instrumentation that’s accented with light percussion (finger snaps and bongos included) that are all woven together with singer Colin Plant’s soulful vocals. The first single, “Make Believe,” already has more than 115,000 Spotify streams. As of this morning, the rest of the EP is available now, too. Listen to Cabal in its entirety below.