Fans of the electronic music duo Overmono, made up of brothers Ed and Tom Russell, would be forgiven for thinking they know the Dobermanns that adorn their record sleeves better than the music artists themselves. The dogs (whose ears are uncropped) made their debut appearance in a charming photograph used on the cover art of the duo’s 2020 EP Everything U Need. They’ve also had cameos in subsequent releases, where they appeared in playfully unhinged imagery, and have become the centrepiece of their audiovisual live shows.

As Overmono’s club-ready hits roll out and the bookings roll in, the obvious route would be to plaster their faces everywhere and capitalise on their burgeoning popularity around the world. But no, those two Dobermanns remain the face of one of the UK’s most coveted electronic acts.

The campaign surrounding Overmono’s debut album, Good Lies – a blend of glistening pop and rave – has seen them add to the Dobermann lore. Photographer and director Rollo Jackson, a long-time collaborator of the duo, created short films for three tracks off the album, which are entirely handed over to the dogs as they frolic about.

But the jewel in the launch campaign’s crown is the pop-up pub in London’s Soho, which was made over in homage to their album campaign stars. Devised by the Russells, Jackson, and XL’s William Aspden, The Two Dogs was decked out with signage, materials, and memorabilia – from tea towels to coasters – filled with the same pomp usually reserved for royal occasions.

The designs are the work of XL’s in-house designers, Jake Simmonds and Texas Maragh, who also created a poster for the pub that doubles down on the royal motifs. At its centre is a painted portrait of the two dogs wearing crowns and decadent regalia, which is flanked by ornate design details and the headlines ‘God save the kings’ and ‘The Coronation of Overmono’.

The Dobermanns have become the symbolic heart of Overmono’s visual universe. The brothers feel that, like Dobermanns, which have a reputation for being aggressive when in fact they’re playful in nature, their brand of techno – usually considered a hard, cold genre from the outside – is anything but. Welcome to absurd world of Dobermono.

Good Lies by Overmono is out now via XL Recordings; overmono.com