CuT-ting The Mustard
Published
"Sorry," says CuT singer and guitarist Dan Gigaseri in his distinctively amiable East London accent, "but I can't get my pedals working."
It's possible that no-one else in the room - with the exception, perhaps, of his bandmates - is any the wiser. Because even without his dazzling array of effects, CuT don't so much perform as deliver their songs the way the Enola Gay delivered the atom bomb on Hiroshima.
It helps, of course, that his fellow guitarist, Jimi Scandal, teases his 50s Hofner guitar through all manner of sonic manipulation, and that tattooed drummer Neil Ganesha and bassist Gabi Garbutt bludgeon with a brutal synchronicity.
So overdriven intensity is the order of the day as the group's single 'Mouth To Mouth' gets a spirited airing, sounding like The Clash covering The Smiths while Dan's vocals arguably executed with more clarity and command than on the recording.
Not long after and the pedals miraculously come back to life and it's true, things do go up yet another notch . Even so, through the punk rock white noise another side to CuT gradually emerges. Tracks like 'Made In Heaven' and a brace of songs that take on classic 50s-style songwriting in the same way The Ramones did, have a lilting romanticism which is as gorgeously tender as their approach is unyielding and rock hard.
CuT are renegades, certainly, but romantic ones at that. For those who appreciate the filth and the fury of punk rock actions, highly recommended.
