“Dark after-hours to high desert romance, Mission District alley cats searching for sunlight.”
The shadowplay of goth punk tones melds with club music on Splat City II by C.L.A.W.S., the newest EP from SF label Squirrels on Film. In our last review of music from the label, we noted their sound as a love letter to classic early techno, and we’d say the same holds true here.
Whether it’s the lockstep rhythm and synth lines of EP opener “Route 505” or the tom-tom mantra of “One Tear” providing a backdrop for reverberating Western twang, the tracks here present an arresting, altered view of the dancefloor. On the final track “Wild Slugs United,” the Knockout’s resident mutant disco denizen Paul Costuros wails on the bass clarinet over staccato pulsing basslines, an industrial cocktail of funk and cacophony.
