Sleaford Mods share “No Touch” ft Life Without Buildings’ Sue Tompkins (watch the video)

Sleaford Mods‘ upcoming album The Demise of Planet X has a lot of cool guests (Aldous Harding, Gwendoline Christie) but the coolest, in this writer’s opinion, is Sue Tompkins of influential cult group Life Without Buildings. Her instantly recognizable voice and style are all over “No Touch” and it’s a match made in heaven, or wherever the midpoint between Glasgow and Nottingham is.

Getting Sue on the album was actually the idea of Rough Trade’s Jeanette Lee. “I just couldn’t believe how good a voice was,” frontman Jason Williamson told us recently, saying he hadn’t actually heard of her before that. “I got a number and she she just agreed to do it straight away. We had an hour long phone call and she’s like, ‘I’m a really big fan.’ Sue had a cold on the day, but I thought that added to it.”

Sue adds, “When I was asked to record with Sleaford Mods, I just had a sort of immediate, big urge/surge to say yes! Just listening to what Jason sent me initially, the feeling there was some sort of sadness or longing or intimacy or regret, just very emotive to me. So, I just responded in a way which hopefully emphasises that vulnerability.”

Williamson calls “No Touch” a “kitchen sink drama about isolation, loneliness and the grim ways we try to keep it together.” The video was made by filmmaker Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, 2011’s Wuthering Heights) and shot near her childhood home in Dartford, and populated by many local characters. “I had such a lovely day making the video with the Sleafords and Sue Tompkins,” says Arnold. “The shoot reminded me of days out to Margate with my family. It was bonkers, chaotic and funny – and we got chips on the way home! I had such a good time working with them all. Although we all do different things, we were all somehow connected. Our work and lives all intermingled. Lovely.”

Watch the video below.

The Demise of Planet X is out January 16 via Rough Trade.