Quick question for the digital music writer world. When a band announces a new track as a single, but there’s a second track there too just sitting in that number 2 spot, is that a B side? It comes second--that much is clear. If it’s a demo or a live track, I'd consider calling that a B. But all I can really be sure of is that if the band in question is Toronto’s Klokwise, two tracks are nothing but a left-right combo directly to the amygdala.
That’s right; Klokwise are back. The Klok has struck midnight. If you’re wise, you’re at home in bed hiding. Did you clean your Klok? That’s ok, they’re gonna do it for you. I could go on.
Klokwise are the band whose pit we will all go to die in. I’m not much of a hierarchy guy, but if I was forced to, like say at Klokpoint, I would have to say that of all the pit-brewing savages that nu metal’s current wave has produced, Klokwise are at the absolute apex, sitting up there like Donkey Kong at the top of the arcade screen, bowling barrels and ruling over all. May their reign last 1000 years.
“Let It Pop (feat. doflame)” is fist one. The metaphor this time is gun violence (“Feel the heat/Feel the weight/Feel the lead to your face/I’m about to catch a case”). As a stand-in for Klok-violence, I accept it. We’re really talking about the same thing here the band covered on their EP Time’s Up from earlier this year. The production on the track is ominous and spacious and when the groove rolls it hits like a wall of shrapnel. That production, by the band, has always been the secret weapon here. What’s new is the inclusion of a guest, Brampton rap rocker doflame (written as DoFlame on their bandcamp), who has a shredded grain to his voice that adds a little sinister friction to his verse, plus a pen full of bits to bring (“So if you’re counting my ends/Should I put em in a diaper/Hmm, shit depends”). The inclusion of DoFlame suggests a burgeoning GTA (that’s Greater Toronto Area, motherfuckers) scene on the build, which is exciting to consider. Rap rock taking Raptor Town? Let’s get it.
If “Let it Pop” is the jab, “Dgaf” is the cross that puts the lights on early. Klokwise teased the track on IG a few weeks back with a clip of the band in a tight space, the camera swinging in a circle from face to face, enumerating how many fucks the band don’t give. It was a sweaty, electric little clip, and primed the pump for a track along the lines of the lean punk of the first EP. What we got in the end turns out to be a much more intricately structured object, not so much a gem as a gem-encrusted pair of brass knuckles. “Dgaf” comes in like it’s gonna bulldoze the floor (“Klok is here, and you’re bout to get fucked up”) followed by a mosh-cueing “1,2,3, JUMP!”, but the way the verse drops immediately into a low-slung, snaky pulse wisely creates a load-charging runway for the chorus. My favourite Klokwise moments are the ones where the whole band gangs up on a mission statement, and this track has maybe the best example of that in their catalogue; (“Do I give one fuck?” Jesse Turnbull demands. “NO WAY” the band shouts back. “Do I give two fucks? (NO WAY) How about three fucks? (NO WAY) You can’t make me give a fuck!”)
This combination of world-negating machismo and masterful, life-giving wind-up-and-release is… transcendent, in the way a Woodstock-esque battle in the mud must’ve been for those who survived. It’s the kind of shit that, especially live, can make you feel born.
If on “Let It Pop” we see Klokwise tighten the screws on what they’ve done before, on “Dgaf” they let fly in a bunch of new directions at once. The slinky, echoey guitar line shimmering around the verse like heat off a tarmac reminds me of Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen’s version of the Mission:Impossible 2 theme, while the almost soothing clean vocal breaks show a lane for Klokwise to hit melodic hooks I wouldn’t have expected them to be even show interest in. Altogether, the track shows the band experimenting with compositional depth and complexity while still knowing exactly when to execute their pit-whipping finishing moves. For one of the most exciting bands in nu metal today, I’m left with only one thing to say: Drop. The. L. P.
Check out the video for "DGAF" below:
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