A collaboration between Catz ’n Dogz and Kink sounds like a match made in heaven (on Claude Von Stroke’s Dirtybird label, no less). But as is often the way with these dream-team collabs you can’t help but feel a tad disappointed by the results.
A predictable sliced ’n diced female vocal sounds hackneyed and borders on the grating. Then there’s the requisite tech-house build ups and monster drops into rubbery basslines – offering the obligatory Dirtybird buoyancy – but ends up sounding like something off a sterile Ministry of Sounds compilation.
Don’t get me wrong, technically this is a decent enough production, and will have certain peak-time floors going wild. But Catz ’n Dogz’ reputation for fun kookiness coupled with Kink’s hard-hitting, raw edge should have yielded something more interesting – or at least not something quite as by-the-book or forgettable as this.
Thankfully ‘Bad Love’ treads a little closer to the darker, ragged side of Kink’s percussive productions, and wields a heafty, heads-down tribal-techno groove that packs some real punch even if it does start to tire after the first few minutes.
Dirtybird | May | Digital only
