The Longcut Make The Transition

The Longcut have finally unleashed their fantastic debut album ‘A Call And Response’ to the public and it seems an age since ‘Transition’ EP released back in 2004. Many are focusing in the fact that the album has been a long time coming, which considering this current smash and grab climate, a two year gap could prove fatal. But while other bands have been tripping over themselves to get releases out Longcut have sat back, biding their time and now they are more than ready to deliver.

Gigwise caught up with singer Stuart Oligivie as he was about to embark on a series of launch dates for the album. First things first, why did it take them so long? Stuart succinctly explains: “When we did the EPs we didn’t really know what we were doing. In hindsight we put them out a bit early without having enough good material to put on the album.”

The album features crowd favourites like ‘Transition’ and ‘A Quiet Life’ as well as new found epics ‘The Kiss Off’ and ‘Holy Funk’. Each of the older songs hasn’t merely been dusted off and slapped on record, but given more depth and a whole range of new twists and turns. Stuart elucidates “To a lot of people I think it will sound a bit different. People who have listened to the EPs might notice a difference, the EPs are quite sharp, quite high energy, we let the old songs develop a bit more”.

This laidback attitude has carried Longcut through well allowing them to remain relaxed, assured and ultimately happy with the final product. “The album has quite a few moods on it. As long as people can sit down and listen to the whole album and enjoy it we’ll be happy”, says Stuart. He adds “When people review it they always mention how long it’s been, but most people finish up saying it's worth the wait”.

And their loyal core of fans seem to agree, throughout the gap in between records The Longcut ranks have slowly been swelling, extending them far beyond their Manchester realm. Many would put this down to timing - their album comes out at a time when beat-laden, indie-dance edged tunes are entering a renaissance and acts like Klaxons and Shitdisco are creeping into the collective consciousness.

Stuart seems fairly nonplussed by the hype, commenting on former touring buddies the Klaxons: “I’m not too clean on their clothes, but their tunes are alright”. In fact as far as he’s concerned the ‘new’ indie-disco scene was there all along.  “When we first started people were comparing us to The Rapture, because they were about then. People are always talking about this being a new scene, but it’s never really gone away”, says Stuart.