Cut is the debut studio album by The Slits, a curious gem of mutant grooves and avant production that bust out of the punk scene.
Recorded and released in 1979, Cut remains such a vibrant listening experience. The band were punks in the truest sense - provocative with purpose and utterly fearless - but this iconic debut LP actually doesn't sound much at all like the ‘punk’ of their contemporaries. The all-female crew had exploded from the mid 1970’s Ladbroke Grove squats, supporting The Clash and other punk luminaries with an intense and thrashing sound. They had evolved (co-founder Palmolive had left and joined The Raincoats) into a trio of vocalist Ari Up, guitarist Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollitt on bass, with Budgie drafted in as drummer as they worked towards their debut. His impact sonically at the drum kit really expanded where the trio could progress with shifting time signatures and yelping choruses. It is rarely straightforward.
Another fascinating aspect of the album is dub icon Dennis Bovell at the desk. The spacey reggae vibes across the album give it such an idiosyncratic spring and bounce, and some of the more experimental moments (‘Newtown’ is gloriously ingenious with shaking matches and clinking spoons) are an absolute trip.
“We were all virgins when it came to composing and writing, but we liked the ideology of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood: always questioning things. That fed into our music. We knew we were a first, which could be uncomfortable, and we were much more revolutionary than the Pistols and the Clash. They were rock bands, whereas we were using world music and reggae, filtered through our own musicality.”
- Viv Albertine
Vocally the album is a whirl of in-jokes, but in that it is both fun and funny, it easily masks sharp and wry themes of consumerism, class structure and a lot about sexual stereotypes. The famous album cover (Pennie Smith’s photograph of the trio naked - bar loincloths - covered in mud) is great example of this, lauded and chastised equally on release, but so often misunderstood as a provocateur of titillation rather than a statement of utter fierceness.
“We wanted a warrior stance, to be a tribe. We were egging each other on, and the next thing you know we were sitting in the mud, smearing it over each other. We knew, since we had no clothes on, that we had to look confrontational and hard. We didn't want to be inviting the male gaze.”
- Viv Albertine
Cut is a focused mood from start to stop. Crisp and inventive pop, complex and exuberant rhythms, stereo swirling dubs and the confidence and youthful amateurism to make it all look like they're hardly trying. It is both hugely punk and also not really very punk, but absolutely one of the most inventive and enduring albums of that period.
