"UK Grim": Apocalyptic Poetry: The Twelfth Album by the Sleaford Mods

An album full of disgust for the present, an album from the lockdown: the electro-punk duo Sleaford Mods have filled the dozen.

"UK Grim": Apocalyptic Poetry: The Twelfth Album by the Sleaford Mods

An album full of disgust for the present, an album from the lockdown: the electro-punk duo Sleaford Mods have filled the dozen. "UK Grim" is the twelfth album by Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn and it's really grim: The hoarse hate tirades as chants by Williamson in the Midlands dialect, paired with the minimalist mix of punk, dub and hip-hop by music producer Andrew Fearn: This is Sleaford Mods.

"UK Grim" also a grim diagnosis. Inflation, Brexit, war. Has it ever been worse out there? "The rot has set in," says Williamson. A typical phrase of his apocalyptic poetry. His claim: "It is important to explore the dark side of things."

British Working Class Poetry

14 tracks full of protest, fury, anger, rage - this is the emotional world of the Sleaford Mods, appropriately presented with swear words, swearing, swearing, gaffes - British working-class poetry. Even his wife attested to the album being "really damn angry," says Williamson. Guest on the new album: Perry Farrell from Jane's Addiction on the song "So Trendy".

Sleaford Mods was founded in 2007, before Fearn, by Williamson and Simon Parfrement. That same year, the duo self-released their self-titled debut and follow-up, The Mekon. The early albums, including "Squeeze", were produced in a minimalist manner and were influenced by lo-fi. Fearn didn't officially join until 2012. Parfrement remains involved with Sleaford Mods as the band's photographer and filmer.

After collaborations with The Prodigy and Leftfield, Sleaford Mods became known to a slightly wider audience in 2015 with the album "Key Markets". Further scene successes followed with "English Tapas" (2017), "Eton Alive" (2019) and "Spare Ribs" (2021). In England, at least three of their albums made it into the top ten.

Sleaford Mods bring power into the halls

With each new release, the duo continued to develop their own sound and incorporated elements of electronic music, post-punk and dub. In interviews, Sleaford Mods described their music as "electronic, minimalist punk-hop rants for Nottingham's working class and lower classes". On top of that they released various EPs, compilations and a live album.

A video posted by punk icon Iggy Pop that went viral last year caused a sensation. In the short clip, Iggy Pop's parrot dances to the Sleaford Mods song "Tweet Tweet Tweet".

In Germany, the Sleaford Mods have remained an insider tip, although concert observers attest the duo, now in their early 50s, to carry an amazing amount of power into the halls with their stage equipment consisting of three crates of beer, a laptop and a stand-up microphone. According to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", the Sleaford mods seem like a "pop inside joke from the day before yesterday": "But then you experience them and then you suddenly get it."

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