Review Summary: Premature caffeine crash, why is my mug overflowing
Hot on the heels of Sleigh Bells and the since-disgraced, still-inescapable Crystal Castles, Snow Strippers are the latest thing in synthed-up disaster pop for the overstimulated and terminally online; my veins were ready and waiting. A little too ready, it turns out — their new EP
Night Killaz Vol. 2 may pull the appropriate amount of punches (
none of them) when it comes to instant gratification, spliced-up hooks and willfully claustrophobic pacing, but the average song here sets about its work with such bullish insistence on one or two fuckoff hysterical hooks that the odds are it will burn out faster than you do (and so the EP's 20-minute runtime feels about half that again). Once in a while, the duo do hit on
exactly the kind of refrain that needs to be repeated as often and loudly as possible, with exponential dividends from even the slightest variation in delivery ("So What If I’m A Freak"), but this is offset by the number of tracks that run out of steam by the halfway mark ("Need to Know") or that recycle disorienting flourishes to the point of fatigue ("Back N Forth"). Chalk this up to production: although the act has made considerable progress in this department since their self-titled LP, but all too often
Night Killaz Vol. 2's aesthetic and stylings do very little to counteract how easy it is to visualise exactly where the loop segments on the duo's DAW start and end.
One-note as the EP can be, it's unfair to say that Snow Strippers shoot for nothing but pure gratification. As with many comparable acts, they play up a fractious relationship with mental health to volatile effect (cue soundbyte
fun fact, if i actually killed myself, u could be arrested for that!, cue gunshot samples), but this scans more as a timely mic drop than an overbearing clutch at edge, and the experience on offer here is almost overwhelmingly sugar-heavy – and on this front,
Night Killaz Vol. 2 scrapes a pass through sheer catchiness and easy replay value. Both of these get a considerable boost from its success in ending on a high note: "Throw It Back Away" is probably the strongest track here as far as songwriting goes, one of the only points in which the band's arsenal of hooks packs the depth and plurality to sustain 90+ seconds of palpable adrenalised substance, and while one could say the same for the semi-cover "Video Games 2", the greater thrill here is the glorious tacky irreverence with which the band phone in backup from the Lana del Rey original like a cheat code for indestructible bad taste (the hottest commodity out there for those who will ultimately jive with this sound). Back to back, these tracks make for a winning closing combo and earn Snow Strippers their endorsement as the fix of the moment – they may play it a little too linear and have some way to go when it comes to matching unchained ecstasy with inventive production, but these two have exactly the right idea where they want to take you.
