The thing about Cut was that by the time it came out although they were still ridiculously young they already sounded like jaded rock legends. Jaded rock legends who still couldn't play but had written several punk classics about male/female stereotyping, consumerism, shoplifting and pretty much all the day to day shit that posturing male bands had forgotten to bring up.

If you hear them on the Peel sessions you get a good idea of their ability to structure songs around their sparse, choppy playing styles and acerbic vocals, somehow managing to sound mean and seductive at the same time.

When you get to Cut it will be a bit of a shock. The sound is fuller, slower, spacier, more rhythmical. I can see how you might think they'd got into some kind of dub crossover groove. I just don't think they have, I think they are still playing the only way they can grinding out great tunes from a basic premise, the difference is the acquisition of Dennis Bovell. Famed for his reggae production he approached Cut like a band member adding his own style not enforcing it. Budgie brought in on drums for the occasion remembers Bovell moving with the decks like he was playing them, approaching his production in a way that made it sound like The Slits were a dub band reaching for a new audience. The result is a colossal album that sounds fresher today than nearly all the late seventies punk output.

It goes without saying that they never reproduced that sound, but then no-one else has. Ari-Up toured recently and while the charisma that made the songs so compelling was evident you realised that The Slits sound may well have needed those people at that time for anything to ever sound as good as Cut again. Paul Tarpey

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