Cut

Slits

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 25, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 1979
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Koch Records
• ASIN: B0006UEVEU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #144,606 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Sprung from the same UK punk scene as the Clash, the Slits are more often lumped in with all-female groups like Switzerland’s Liliput. It's a logical impulse, but the truth--as ever--is more complicated. For one thing, they weren't all female after Palmolive left to join the Raincoats and Budgie (Siouxsie and the Banshees) stepped in as drummer. Then there's the unclassifiable musical concoction reggae producer Dennis Bovell helped them create. It's punk, it's no wave, it's dub--and ultimately has more in common with the post-punk of PiL or the Pop Group. Met with critical accolades, Cut failed to ignite the charts and was their only recording for Island (they broke up two years later). This welcome reissue features revealing liner notes--in both senses of the word--and two bonus tracks, an off-kilter "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and an extended version of "Love Und Romance." --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Far out, February 25, 2005

By	alexander laurence (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

I was definitely into the first wave of English Punk as it happened. I was into The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Buzzcocks, Siouxsie, and The Damned. But the time I heard about the Slits, I had already moved on to the post-punk music of bands like Gang of Four and Magazine. The local LA hardcore scene was going on too. I was this close (hand gesture) to buying this album in 1979. Later I would see Ari Up play at a CMJ festival in 2001 or so. Now I hear this record, I feel that I might have missed out on something. Like a lot of kids at the time, I was into reggae and ska music. The Slits took that background and turned it into something really original. This record is like the missing link between Siouxsie and Metal Box. As you see, many of the records of the time were trying to do something new and push the form forward. Punk rock was the smallest box imaginable to peep out from. At the time we thought that it was a good thing that the Sex Pistols broke up. It was good that The Clash and PIL did a bunch of albums that sounded differently. We did not think that bands like The Ramones and The Damned would be doing the same thing for twenty years. So this is a brilliant record. The record company did get them to do "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" as a commercial ploy. They released "Typical Girls" instead. The album "Cut" did make it into the UK Top 40. That was all the success they had. Their second album bombed and they broke up a few years later.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't sleep on this one - one of the most underrated, ignored albums ever!, December 31, 2005

By	G. Mitchell "greggmitch" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this on LP when it came out on import LP in 1979 and have waited for a CD reissue ever since - thanks KOCH for putting out a nice package, with personal, insightful liner notes and amazing bonus tracks, including the infamous reggae-dub cover of "I HEAR IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE" that Island chief Chris Blackwell allegedly tried to get the girls to release to radio in place of the far-more-hard-sell "TYPICAL GIRLS" -and maybe things would have been different for The Slits? No matter, CUT is one of the best post-punk/dub/reggae/no-wave/whatever you want to call it albums ever - criminally ignored, often overlooked, but still highly influencial - one listen and you'll know why - with their riddum-dub basslines and infectious chattering call-&-response vocals, The Slits (not trained musicians) managed to concoct a ground-breaking, if off-kilter krew. Pals of THE CLASH and DON LETTS, The Slits were at least two decades ahead of their time. Maybe that's why they weren't a big success the first time out? No one knew quite to make of 'em, much less girls. But along with other circa 1979 LPs like THE CLASH'S LONDON CALLING, PUBLIC IMAGE's PUBLIC IMAGE, BOOMTOWN RATS's THE FINE ART OF SURFACING, THE B-52S and PRETENDERS self-titled debuts and many others, you realize what an amazing year 1979 was for music, smashing rules and finding a bright new path ahead. That was then, this is now...

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Talk about an influential album., March 4, 2006

By	Chris bct "music everyday" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

And, again, the beauty of CD's adding extra trax. Who can beat that. 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine' was always one of their special songs that's a delight to find here.

What's with the SLITS? Nobody like them before or since. Really feels like their own musical journey they took experimenting and, in the main, successfully, in a direction few have ever gone again that I'm aware of.

They melded that reggae feel into several of their songs that a number of early punk bands were happy to also do on occasional song. These gals though wove it more intricatly into the songs DNA so to speak.

Plus a number of their other songs feel like they deconstructed the classic pop song in the name of punk and feminism and reconstructed them as they wished to create something that often hit the mark, occasionally feeling like indulgence. In a real sense they are part of the roots of Riot grrl along with the RAINCOATS, KLEENEX, BUSH TETRAS, X-RAY SPEX and I'm sure someone else.

Ok, it's a nice album cover. What? None of my other favorite bands took their shirts off and covered themselves in mud. I'm confident they did this cover in the name of freedom of self rather than of exploitation.

There's not a lot out there that the SLITS did. This is their main release. With the addition of the two extra trax yer gettin' a lot of what they did. That's why I'd highly recommend the Peel sessions CD as well which is quite worth hearing and not simply a recreation of this album. [e-mail]