The Cutter | Polevaulter
The Castle Hotel, Manchester
21st September 2024
The Cutter and Polevaulter wreak various forms of electronic and post-punk noise upon the appreciative audience of Manchester’s cosiest venue.
Leeds noise punk duo Polevaulter were a visceral and threatening presence from the start, with the perfect amount of stage chat (minimal) and pounding sonics (maximum): attired like the mocking authority figure Sergeant and cheekier private in a classic action film, the duo’s noise was similarly commanding and rinsed with dark, humorous energy. Although there was an oversaturation of distortion at the start, slightly muffling the vocals, this only accentuated their murky heaviness. Plaster A Fake Smile’s resolute barks swam through the fog, enhancing its constricting tone, describing the ineffective monopoly of the BBC.
Later, the distortion heightened the impact of the already mangled snare, especially on Trend and set closer Tony’s House. The latter was a quasi-noise jam which – with its Swans-esque squelching rhythms, droning mentality, and whip-cracking drums – could have stretched into the next day with few complaints. Trend’s low-slung, puncturing bass and dirge of equally swampy, rung-out notes emphasised its chugging urgency.
Violently Ill, like Trend, was prime Polevaulter – taut, sinewy basslines; roar-along, coarsely spat-out choruses, and scuzzy electronics. It also displayed the eerie, detached strength of the band’s penchant for sampling; feeding into the febrile atmosphere as vocalist Jon Franz perched on the speakers to belt hefty pressure into the titular lyric. The duo’s new single, Campaign Trail, bore down on its mantra-like lyric of “if you die on tour, you die in real life”, the optimum lead-up to a cathartic silence and drop, followed by even heavier drums and crunching distortion.
Electronic dance trio The Cutter set their hometown venue alight, swiftly filling the mini-venue. A pseudo-Alex Turner drawl infiltrated the otherwise incredible performance of the opening track Pulling Me In, as well as the third of the set, a surprisingly shoegaze-y detour. This marked the beginning of what became a much greater diversity of sound than their releases thus far would suggest, which mainly occupy electronic dance music. A later track’s melodic bass lines and Strokes-ish drum patterns buoyed the band’s driving rhythms further down this shoegaze angle.
The pulsing drums and synths of a subsequent track orbited a corner of acid house and dance heard on their latest single, Useless, followed by brooding post-punk urgency, synthesized drums with an uncanny live feel, and howling vocals. This percussion was among the highlights of the gig, ranging from evoking Melt Banana’s monolithic live drum synthesis to IDM-inspired drum machines.
Though they revelled in far more genres live, and did so successfully, only a small portion were fused in a revolutionary way. A languid tune with a slowcore mood, heavy fuzz guitars and plaintive vocals, echoing AR Kane infused with techno synths, met this criteria to the fullest extent.
Closing the set, the trio fostered a full-on, Orbital-esque dance music thrum – an adrenaline-fuelled peak to contrast with the previous track’s trippy plateau. The snappy drums were fluid, complimented by Ewan Kinrade’s similarly percussive vocal yelps.
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Find The Cutter and Polevaulter on social media.
Photos by Lucie Armstrong
Words by James Kilkenny. Read more of his writing for Louder Than War here
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