At first glance it looks rather daunting: layer upon layer of drone and aching rawk piled high, reaching to a seemingly impregnable peak. But fear not, for there’s melody in them there hills.
Nonetheless The Longcut’s debut album is a tricky affair. This trio have no time for foreplay and the opening ‘A Last Act Of Desperate Men’ spanks hard, its abrasive Sonic Youth referencing guitar leaving the listener feeling rather ripped. ‘Gravity In Crisis’ utilises similarly coarse rhythms, Stuart Ogilvie's vocals crushed beneath a dense wall of sound. My Bloody Valentine did this kind of thing, only better.
However, let’s not be too harsh, for A Call And Response is a far from loveless affair. Having roughed us up with the opening salvo, they come on all tender, well, relatively speaking, with ‘A Tried And Tested Method’. The calm after the storm, drums and bass are tightly reined, the guitar chimes sweetly and the crisp, unfettered rock dynamic of the song shines through.
The Longcut are certainly not devoid of ideas, be it the preening, electro powered freak-out of ‘A Quiet Life’, the enlightened melancholy of 'Lonesome No More!’ or instrumental reverie of ‘Spires’. These are songs united by an unrelentingly intense ambience and yet, musically, it doesn’t quite hang together.
Not decisive, but the petulant promise of A Call And Response sees The Longcut stake a claim in the turf war for our affections.