Baltimore duo SLOT have a very sensible agenda for second album Dry Swallow: make you dance, make you think, preferably at the same time.
Abby and Max Detrich make punk with a drum machine and absolutely no desire to sound polite. The eight tracks are full of distorted bass, industrial beats and Y2K electronic weirdness, with Abby’s vocals veering between flirtation, confrontation and sheer enjoyment of taking up space.
There’s a proper thread running through it too. ‘Jewelry’ looks at seeking validation inside manipulative relationships, while ‘I Like My’ goes firmly the other way: sexuality on your own terms, for your own enjoyment. That distinction shouldn’t still feel radical, but here we are.
The details are great. On ‘Dry’, Abby’s vocal was run through a Leslie rotating speaker, because apparently normal microphones weren’t being strange enough. Elsewhere everything is pleasingly lean and physical, with songs rarely troubling the three-minute mark. No hanging about. More dancing.
SLOT came out of DIY music organising and basement shows, and you can hear that mentality all over Dry Swallow. It’s playful without being throwaway, political without delivering a lecture, and sexy without asking anybody’s permission.
Excellent stuff. Baltimore, can we borrow them please?
Dry Swallow is out now via EXAG’ Records.
Find SLOT on Bandcamp | EXAG’ Records