Sleaford Mods – Divide and Exit

Harbinger Sound

Sleaford Mods, Nottingham’s self-styled purveyors of “electronic munt minimalist punk-hop for the working classes and under,” are back with Divide And Exit, the follow-up to their cult classic compilation Austerity Dogs; so brace for anger, scatology, moshing and swearing. If they were a publication they’d be a cross between Class War and Viz, but they’re not. They’re a band. And they’re fucking excellent. Frontman Jason Williamson comes on like a Black Country John Cooper Clarke, delivery and flow pitched somewhere between Mike Skinner and Mark E Smith, with none of the cheese of the former but all the bile of the latter. Against a stunningly lo-fi, low-rent backdrop Wiliamson spits rhymes, rants and rage into the face of an uncaring world which really needs to clean its toilet every once in a while.

Being something of a swearing enthusiast myself, it’s my pleasure to report that he’s got a mouth like the proverbial whore’s handbag (and no, I’ve never understood quite how that one works either, but it’s vaguely offensive, so fuck it, it stays). “I’m a connoisseur, I’ve conned you, sir – nicked your biscuits, laughed with your mates, wanked in your toilet. You fucking titrifle,” Williamson boasts on “You’re Brave,” and you can bet your bollocks he ain’t lying. He literally HAS wanked in your toilet. For hasn’t he, in a very real sense, wanked in ALL our toilets? Literally. With actual wanking.

Like Half Man Half Biscuit‘s Nigel Blackwell, he aims much of his vitriol at the mediocrity of modern life and the pricks who capitalise on it, but here the backing is Andrew Fearn‘s drum loops and punk bass riffs, giving the whole thing a kind of Alien Sex Fiend vibe, only with cheap lager instead of acid, or a less melancholy, more minimal Arab Strap. An Arab Strap who grew up on The Wu-Tang Clan and class, rather than sexual, politics. And like all the best anger, it’s funny, too. “Three words – cage, wheel, hamster. Here, here’s a bit of cheese – nibble the bastard,” is now up there in my favourite rhymes, roughly on a level with Enter The Wu-Tang‘s “You become so pat as my style increases – what’s that in your pants? Aah, human faeces!”

And it’s reassuring to know that anger isn’t just a young man’s game – the cultural reference points are spot on, from Viz‘s Norbert Colon through Jim Morrison (“Break on through and end up in a posh cemetery in Paris. It’s not bad. You fucking…” he says on “Liveable Shit”, while Fearn slips in a cheeky bit of organ, as it were) right back to Tiswas and even the legendary (for British men of a certain age) OTT. OTT, for those who don’t remember, was the controversial late-night Tiswas spin-off for adults, which assumed legendary proportions in the minds of schoolboys who weren’t allowed to watch it but had heard that it had actual bare ladies on it, and someone might even say “fuck.” And I’ll even forgive them for saying “The Final Countdown” was by Journey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EorIznOfTX8

They remind me of so many good things, without actually sounding much like any of them; from Crass to the late, lamented Sicknote. I’ll leave the last comparison to the Mods themselves, though. “I feel like Elaine Paige, but without the fucking tunes and Joe Cocker bollocks”.

Fucking brilliant. Cunts.

-Justin Farrington-