The Slits, Revenge of the Killer Slits

The Slits are back! After making us wait for 25 years, they’ve rewarded our patience with a new record. The Slits’ new EP,Revenge of the Killer Slits, shows them in fine form. With two new songs and one unreleased old one, Revenge is a look at where they’ve been as well as where they’re headed, showcasing a heavy hip-hop feel to the new songs and showing the Slits moving in yet another new direction.

Fortunately, they justify their return with this album. “Slits Tradition” extends the Slits’ previous dub reggae and Afro-pop explorations with a full-fledged hip-hop track featuring quavering, out-of-tune keyboard samples matched perfectly by Ari Up’s slightly dissonant vocals. When singers decide to reinvent themselves as rappers, they’re usually not able to pull it off. Given that, we should naturally be worried when someone who hasn’t recorded in 25 years does it, but here she really pulls it off — she’s exciting, dancing and dodging around the words. Maybe she took the time off to listen to hip-hop records?

The other songs are good, too. “Kill Them With Love” is a dancey, keyboard-heavy, almost ’80s-style track (and before you think “oh, how retro,” consider that for this band the ’80s would still be a step forward, chronologically speaking) with a big drum machine beat and rapped interludes. Every one’s having fun, Ari in particular — she gets to do her old thing during the choruses, which keep getting bigger and bigger. Tessa contributes a springy dub bass line that complements the dance beat. “Number One Enemy,” dating from 1976, starkly contrasts with the rest of the record, although not in a bad way. It’s solid energy, an old-school punk rock tune that’s probably one of the most straightforward songs they’ve done. And yet the driving groove and intense bass line anchor the songs in classic Slits style.

Another interesting development is that here Ari uses her vocals to complement the songs more than on previous records. Her free-floating vocals serve each song more than before, when she’d use them to break the songs apart. Her vocals here help make each song distinctive. Those who were looking for her old soaring vocals, though, will be somewhat disappointed with Revenge. On “Slits Tradition,” she sings some of the background vocals, but the rest is almost entirely rapped, and “Number One Enemy” is three solid minutes of sneering. We do get a taste of the “soaring” stuff on “Kill Them With Love,” but even there the singing is mostly straightforward.

If they were going to make a comeback record, they couldn’t have done much better than Revenge of the Killer Slits. It’s a remarkable record. Here’s hoping we won’t have to wait another 25 years for the followup — of course, if it’s as good as this one, it’ll be worth the wait.