The Longcut - 'A Call And Response' (Deltasonic) Released 12/06/06

Adopted Mancunian's The Longcut’s long-awaited debut ‘A Call and Response’ is filled with spinning jangle-scratch vibrations that grab your attention quickly, but sometimes lose there hold. Their sonic blueprint comprises varying degrees of jungle-rhythm drums that push you to twist about, subtle but driving bass lines, and taught guitar work in shifting shades of black and blue. The brooding, confused voice of front man and multi-instrumentalist Stuart Ogilvie drops in and out of the mix, not harmonious by any means and his lyrics are a tad fractured, but he has just desperate enough a howl to get away with it.

The guitars however, are what really do the talking on this strange viaduct between The Music and Sonic Youth. All their tunes seem to, in their own way, aim for the epic. Only a few make it the whole way but even those that don’t are big enough animals. The dam-near 7 minute ‘A Last Act of Desperate Men’ teeters just of the edge of brilliance, though never quite making the final jump. Track two ‘Gravity in Crisis’ is a little slower and gentler but ultimately a more windscreen experience, while ‘A Quiet Life’ displays the funkier end of there arsenal, and though it wouldn’t exactly fill the disco floor it has some infectious beats knocking around inside it.

A promising debut, The Longcut are constantly on the verge of creating brilliance but more often than not somehow manage to miss the target. Now they must push that little bit further to really hit the dizzy, post-rock heights their sound seems to be aiming for.