F*SLUR's “No Sleep” is a queer punk floor-filler for after the afterparty

Like lost media from the analogue era, the fuzzy acid music video for F*SLUR’s debut release “No Sleep” could fit right in among the glam rock lineup of a Top of the Pops episode from the 1970s. Part Marc Bolan, part “Weird Al” Yankovic, lead vocalist Kurtis Lincoln is the self-admitted brainchild of this freakishly enticing funland rooted in punk rock and new wave pastiche. “We took visual cues from Kenneth Anger and Spy Kids,” says the multihyphenate artist. “We’ve got a load of drag queens, some of our closest friends are in there. Directing is fab, stressful as fuck, doing it on no budget was horrible. This city is crippling.”

For Lincoln, the rough concept of the video is: “a waiting room of every working class person’s worst nightmares, in their sleep paralysis. There’s a bent copper, a judge, a businessman.” Mind-altering cross fades and wide-eye close-ups make for a hypnotising watch, mimicking the slow and silly passage of time of the track’s repetitive hook. An anti-capitalist countdown to partying on the weekend, there’s, literally, no rest for the wicked. Lyrically, it’s a spiritual successor to Michael Gray’s dance classic “The Weekend”. In sound, a deliberate screamo provocation of female-led post punk and 90s riot grrrl bands like Shampoo. Between shrill verses and a deep, booming chorus, Lincoln’s voice is a powerful elevation of his teenage days as an MC at drum and bass squat raves.

A funk-oriented bass line, gritty guitar and steady drum roll yields the DIY textures of the track's genre roots. “The way that we make music, we all come with our own references, and it's very organically just, like, chuck it at the wall and see what happens,” says Lincoln. “In terms of punk music, I listen to a lot of The Cramps. While it's screamy and loud and shouty, there's always a ‘haha wink wink’ with everything, there's always a sexiness in some way. I think that's where it goes a bit queer. Shampoo are just fierce, they are the queens of London. It’s that marriage of punk and anger but through joy and rebellion, and also just being the odd ones out in the space.”

“It takes a village”, as drummer Jordan Hearns puts it during the dissection of F*SLUR’s inception. Given the financial struggles that come with living in a crazy expensive city, it’s somewhat of a miracle that the chummy four-piece, all based in East London, are able to balance multiple creative side hustles with their new band. “For me, it all works in tandem, it’s an ever-evolving thing that will ebb and flow,” Lincoln expresses. “Everything revolves around each other,” says Hearns, who is also a DJ and known by many as the co-founder of publishing project SMUT Press.

If you’re not already tapped into the queer art scene of Princess Julia’s East London, you may recognise Lincoln as the star of Bruce LaBruce’s art porno film The Visitor. He is not new to music projects, having released his solo dance EP Hodgepodge in 2024. “Whatever pays the bills, I will do it. I’ve just been a party boy around town for a couple years, and performance art sort of morphed into music, it was a tangible thing, a more concrete way of life for me.”

Jan Margolius (guitar) runs punk print shop Maggot Death, while Jake Reed (bass), a DJ, befriended Lincoln through involvement in This is My Culture – the annual sex positive party in tribute to George Michael at Hampstead Heath. “We all are ambitious with the band,” says Reed. “It’s a big bit, people see us and they’re genuinely really excited about us.”

“Overtly gay” in every shape of form, there is much lore to the band’s in-your-face identity. “For our first gig, it was on the poster as Fag Slur,” says Hearns of one of the band’s original names. Lincoln adds: “There’s no point calling it a slur if you’re just gonna say the word. I think it started out as just being Faggots, and then I just thought, maybe a little bit too confrontational? You have to soften the blow a little bit, and it just makes it a little bit more tongue in cheek.”

Although “No Sleep” is F*SLUR’s first single, it’s easy to sing along to and, according to Lincoln, it’s the one that best encapsulates the joyous, carefree nature of the band. “In our first session I had the lyrics done, it started as a poem that I wrote ages ago, and it came about organically. When you listen to the music, and then you find that we come from nightlife and dance music culture, it makes perfect sense. There's a brightness and an energy, it feels innate to us because of what we do outside of the band.”

“I'm really not interested in ever writing about the hardships of what it means. I guess I am in some ways, but I think that the narrative of being gay is really hard, it's true, yes, and that's why it's true. But, like, do I really need to carry on talking about that? No. I would much rather talk about why it's exciting and fun, and why it's liberating. That's your form of resistance.”

While the sound of East London’s queer scene isn’t punk, the ethos, and the way people party, certainly is. Eager to carve out a little space for other bands like them, a love letter to the world they’re around and the freaks and the weirdos they all know, F*SLUR have already built up strong momentum with a solid string of gigs to carry them into the new year: from their first gig supporting Rizzy & The Gents at Rough Trade East, to Lincoln’s SMASHING TIME night at The Divine.

“There’s such a huge lineage of queer live music in London, but I think specifically for our era, the East London nightlife, no one else is really doing it,” Hearns shares. “I feel like the response you get in a live music setting is more concentrated. Every time we play something new, we can feel a good response.” Their next London show at The Old Blue Last, Shoreditch, is confirmed for December 20.