Electropunk as you’ve never heard it before – Review, ‘Torx’ CLT DRP
I am neither the first nor the last to say that, although we might love them dearly, sometimes the wave of post-punk bands spewed up by every city’s DIY scene can be overwhelming. Dare I say, sometimes they can get boring. Enter stage: CLT DRP. A breath of invigorating air, they’re taking post-punk in a new, electrified direction.
Despite their polished sound CLT DRP are relatively new to the Brighton scene. The three formed, like any good Brighton band, during their time at BIMM in 2017 as part of a uni assignment. Guitarist Scott Reynolds described the moment to Guitar.com, saying, ‘We literally wrote a song straight away. Daphne (Koskeridou) is incredible. The chemistry is amazing, I can just play her a riff and she’ll just find the right groove.’ Completed by third member and vocalist Annie Dorrett, the trio launched their first single, ‘Merry Go Round’ when the school year ended, and they’ve yet to look back.
CLT DRP can only be described as unyielding. While their radio-unfriendly name (pronounced ‘clit drop’) means you certainly don’t have to google interviews to find band’s political views, if you do, you’ll find Annie confirming the obvious. ‘I just want to see some producers that are not a straight white man for starters’, she bemoans to Punktastic. ‘Please let us see some god damn diversity behind the scenes!’.
Their sound is equally hesitant to take prisoners. Reynold’s approached CLT DRP knowing that ‘there was always something about electronic music that just did something for me that standard guitar music didn’t’. It’s this urge to create something different is most evident in CLT DRP’s discography.
New single ‘Torx’ is proof that they’ve achieved that. It’s both dense with danceable electronic beats and simultaneously full of atmospheric expanses. Combined with Reynold’s signature stretched out riffs (thanks to his beloved collection of distorting pedals), ‘Torx’ is electropunk that’s both biting and boisterous.
Dorrett’s lyrics, which include, ‘You think everything’s problematic and everyone’s appropriating/ So you might as well just shut the fuck up and consume’, are both tongue-in-cheek and rage-against-the-machine nihilistic. While not as directly engaged with feminist issues as some of the tracks on their debut album ‘Without the Eyes’, her unflinchingly engages lyrics are certainly within the same spirit.
Having just announced that they’re joining De Staat for much of their 2022 EU tour, it looks like CLT DROP won’t be slowing down any time soon. To keep up to date via their Facebook page, click here.
Words by Kate Bowie
More album reviews and articles from Kate here.
