Mongrel were a British band formed in 2008, founded by former

Arctic Monkeys Arctic Monkeys are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Sheffield in 2002. They comprise lead singer Alex Turner, drummer Matt Helders, guitarist Jamie Cook and bassist Nick O'Malley. The co-founder and original bassist Andy Nicholson ...

bassist Andy Nicholson. Alongside Nicholson in the band were Joe Moskow, both of Reverend and The Makers, Babyshambles bassist Drew McConnell as well as London rapper

Lowkey Kareem Dennis (born 23 May 1986), better known by his stage name Lowkey, is a British rapper and activist from London. He first became known through a series of mixtapes he released before he was 18, before taking a hiatus from the music busi ...

from the Poisonous Poets. Mongrel released their first album '' Better Than Heavy'' on 7 March 2009. In 2011, McClure was asked if there were plans to release anymore music. He said Mongrel was a side project and a one off.

''Better Than Heavy''

''Better Than Heavy'' was released on Saturday 7 March 2009 free in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' newspaper. For the album, McClure stated "We had Saul Williams come in and do a thing on it . .We're really taking a few people to task, kind of like we're

Public Enemy Public Enemy is an American Hip-hop, hip hop group formed in Roosevelt, New York, in 1985 by Chuck D and Flavor Flav. The group rose to prominence for their political messages including subjects such as Racism in the United States, American r ...

or something." It was the first time a British band had given their début album away free with a national newspaper on release. The full release, 23 March 2009, contains two CDs, Disc 2 is a reworked version of "Better Than Heavy" by Adrian Sherwood at On-U Sound Studios, tracks are re-titled Dub versions.

''Better Than Heavy''

Discography

References

External links