The Longcut

High Voltage!, tonight’s hosts, are garnering something of a reputation for putting on anybody who’s going to be, or could be somebody in the Manchester indie rock fraternity. Tsuji Giri, tonight’s headliners, are touting their new Steve Albini-produced LP, but it’s the younger, more svelte and, dare I say it, more talented Longcut that everybody’s turned out for tonight.

They’ve signed to Liverpool’s Deltasonic and the hype says Mogwai meets Liars. The hype has been engendered because drummer / singer Stuart behaves like the singer from Liars when he’s singing and like the drummer from the ‘gwai when he’s drumming. When Stuart wants to leave the kit and take on frontman duties, he triggers off his drum machine, going backwards and forwards in such a way that there are essentially two Longcuts – a cracking, mini-Godspeed of a post-rock three piece and a slightly less enchanting punk-funk mob. For when Stuart drums, The Longcut really rock. When he sings, they aren’t quite as convincing. He’s a cracking drummer and gives his drumstick-wielding guitar foil Lee plenty to build upon when he’s behind the kit. It’s to his credit that he has the energy to essentially play two roles at once, at full throttle, but he seems far more at home when he’s belting all hell out of his drumset.

Still, he has the potential to grow into his dual role and I wouldn’t want to discourage somebody from trying to do something original; nor, of course, could I, because anybody who really can do something, does it, no matter how difficult it may seem to be from the outside. Anyway, in the meantime, The Longcut are the best new band in Manchester, so they shouldn’t worry too much about anything that anybody says about them.