Cutnancy - Demo
By Dave Urwin
Cutnancy hail from the infamous streets of Bridgewater – voted about number ten in the UK’s worst towns. Such knowledge might make one reasonably assume that their music would be a righteous blast of fury, and an impassioned cry against the horror of their surroundings. While it’s true that I know not of any Bridgewater based Newton Faulkner style singer-songwriters, and of a number of particularly vitriolic punk bands from a similar location, expectations are made to be confounded. This was exactly my experience within less than a minute of opening track ‘Every Time’ unfurling.
I’d say that Cutnancy’s influences are numerous but I’d hazard a guess that between them they own at least one album by Aereogramme, At The Drive-In and Mogwai. Elements of all of those bands are present; the dynamics, a hint of an awkward time signature and the dreamy effects the guitar washes over these three tracks, but the overall mood though is rather more instantly uplifting. ‘Beat of the Drum’ though, commences with a gently strummed guitar with some poetry spat over the top in a vague approximation of Mark E Smith. The line ‘Slowly shrivelling in urine-soaked dry mucus,’ and talk of ‘Bamboo Banshies’ hint at life in Bridgewater indeed not being a picnic. Each song changes tempo like someone is flicking through the channels on some kind of post-rock TV network but never in a way that makes the song lose momentum. ‘Every Time’ features melodies and fuzzed up chords that are like the gentle lapping of a warm ocean on the shore at first light, although there is always a hint of clouds on the horizon through the introspective lyrics. ‘Take what you want, leave nothing’ runs what could loosely be described as the chorus.
Overall I’m most impressed by this demo and cannot find anything to criticise without getting out a microscope and having a bloody thorough gawp at its molecular structure. I guess my only disappointment is that there aren’t more tracks, and hope that a further release will not be far behind. On the live front these guys have put themselves about quite a bit, including being part of the locally notorious ‘Czech tour.’ They have supported the likes of Skindred, Inme and Lamb Quartet as well as Tiger Force, one of whom was in the same chalet as me at my first ATP festival. Once again I am reminded that Somerset is a small world. As for anything upcoming, they’re playing Bristol’s Croft on the 15th February and Taunton’s Perfect 5th two days later. If what they’ve committed to CD translates well into the live arena then it should be well worth the effort.
