Austerity Dogs
(Harbinger Sound - 106) CD $12.00 (Out-of-stock)
(Harbinger Sound - 106) LP $22.50 (Out-of-stock)
Sleaford Mods are the product of Britain’s harsh reality -- a punk band that, through lack of sympathy for the human race, replaced its members with a laptop. Their songs are fueled with working class philosophy, and the vibe is bleak. Comparable to the delivery of John Cooper Clarke, Steve Ignorant, Ian Dury, the pumping bass riffs of The Fall, the cheap synth beats of The Normal.
Divide And Exit
(Harbinger Sound - 121) CD $12.00 (Out-of-stock)
(Harbinger Sound - 121) LP $22.50 (Out-of-stock)
In a surprising turn of events, Pitchfork has some detailed thoughts about Sealford Mods’ second full-length LP for Harbinger Sound. “Singer Jason Williamson speed-talks bile while Andrew Fearn provides coarse backing tracks, which barely get beyond cheap plastic keyboard presets…. Divide and Exit is about as punk as punk gets in 2014. Williamson sounds charged, wired, determined to make one last go of things, simultaneously expressing his frustration at the helplessness of it all and finding his words taking him somewhere beyond his current predicament…. [Their] songs follow a simple formula, repeated 14 times on Divide and Exit. Fearn triggers his economical music, allowing it to repeat until close, while Williamson gets lost in a blizzard of words, sometimes to the point of tripping over himself…. Profanity, jokes, and commentary come thick and fast, with Williamson often sounding like he’s in an argument with himself…, a universal expression of exasperation…. Some of the acts regularly mentioned in the same breath as Sleaford Mods include The Streets, The Fall, and English punk-poet John Cooper Clarke. There are traces of those artists here, but only dim ones in the overall picture…. The crude nature of this music as a mode of overall expression, whether it’s in the unrelenting use of swearing or in Fearn’s cloddish rhythms, might be the most powerful tool this band has at its disposal…. The works are raw and technically poor, but the bitterness and hatred they express is overwhelming, illustrating how base feeling, when expressed with such belief, can overcome any window dressing put up around it.”