Journal

The Slits - Cut

Posted on September 25th, 2004, in the morning

The Slits have been one of those bands I've heard of in good contexts but never got in to, so when I found their 1979 album 'Cut' (Amazon.co.uk) in a second hand shop for 25p the other day I thought it would be a good opportunity to check them out (no, it wasn't just for the cover!).

I've got into quite a lot of good music that way over the last few years, particularly buying cassettes, which are now so redundant that people give away even their favourite albums. But I have a tape player in my car and at 25p you can't go wrong...

If I was expecting anything of The Slits then it was guitar-driven punk rock, so I was somewhat surprised by the off-beat feel of 'Cut', which I've since discovered is probably largely due to reggae producer Dennis Bovell working on the album.

After my initial disorientation I realise I've stumbled upon an absolute classic. The influence of Ari Up's vocals on all the girl-fronted British bands that were around as I was growing up in the 90's (Elastica, Sleeper, Lush...) is unmistakable.

I'd be very interested to see what would happen if a track like 'Shoplifting' was released today; with the exception of some of the production values the whole record sounds unbelievably fresh.

I look forward to negotiating the South London traffic just for my car's cassette player at the moment.

And I even just found this interview with Palmolive - The Slits' drummer (though not on 'Cut') - in which she talks about finding Christ.