Slug will return with a brand new album HiggledyPiggledy, set to be released 13th April 2018 through Memphis Industries.

Slug is the nom de plume of North East native Ian Black and, whereas acclaimed debut LP RIPE was made in collaboration with Peter Brewis and David Brewis of Field Music, HiggledyPiggledy was composed, produced and played entirely by Black; enabling him to give free reign to his beguiling brand of Dada-rock. Lead single "No Heavy Petting" was consciously written to be an aggressive album opener, and which pokes fun at Black's own Mary Whitehouse-esque response to the sexualisation of music on television.

"'No Heavy Petting" was kind of a task I gave myself to try and write a "sexy song," to see if I could do it," says Black. "So I did a bit of research by turning on a music channel. I was drunk and I realised, while the synthesised marimba, bleeps and drum machines and images of young men and women grinding all over each other, that I'd probably left it a little too late at the age of 35."

The album was inspired by a combination of The Residents, John Carpenter and the soundtracks of Don Cherry (particularly Holy Mountain) and Masahiko Sato (particularly Belladonna) plus the Dada art movement which will be self evident to anyone who's seen the hilarious and life affirming Slug live experience, replete with ever changing stage wear (snooker players, sailors, 50s jazz combo) and spontaneous crowd participation.

Black intended HiggledyPiggledy to be a more minimal affair than debut RIPE, focused more on rhythm and percussion. Thematically the record was written against the backdrop of political turmoil but really it's about the strange life Black leads in his native Sunderland, an autodidact outsider living his life in Wetherspoons arguing with some of the questionable attitudes of locals. Blacks stated aim to "have fun writing truly horrible lyrics," playing characters "venting in pubs, writing in the character of how some people think and behave"

No Heavy Petting

Earlobe

Gibberish

Basic Aggression

Lackadaisical Love

Dolly Dimple

Tongue

You Don't Need To Wake Up

Humming and Hawing

Petulia

A Soft Shoe Number

Arbitrary Lessons In Custom

You Are As Cold As A Dead Fish