The Longcut – Idiot Check / You Got The Love

“a widescreen soundtrack to bleak early mornings and boisterous late nights” Observer Music Monthly

Manchester’s sonic terrorists are set to start the New Year in style with news of a cracking double A side single, Idiot Check / You Got The Love. The former is a standout track from the band’s live set that didn’t quite fit the mood of last year’s critically acclaimed debut album, A Call And Response; the latter is exactly what you’re hoping it is – a post-rock cover of the classic The Source feat. Candi Staton track. And there’s a back-room change too – this release sees the band ‘going indie’ with a 7”-only release on uber-cool Manc label Melodic.

‘Melodic was one of the first labels to be interested in us from very early on, and through them we’ve discovered loads of great bands from Manchester and beyond,’ they say. ‘It’s a very limited run so we hope that once it sells out those file sharing networks will do what they do best,’ say the band.

Recorded during the A Call And Response sessions, Idiot Check has a raw, punkier edge than most of the band’s material, but maintains the layering and insistent electro drums that have become the trio’s calling card.

‘Its always been one of our favourites and we’ve been playing it live for years now, but when we came to get the album sorted out there just didn’t seem to be anywhere that it could slot in,’ say the band. ‘All the other tracks seem to just flow really well into each other and wherever we tried to put it on it just seemed to break up the mood. When we were thinking of a limited edition single for after the album, this and You Got The Love made perfect sense.’

You Got The Love requires no introduction. It’s the perennial club hit that’s a fixture of iPod playlists nationwide given the full Longcut electro-shaman treatment.

‘We’ve had the idea to do it for about three years now, since I heard it in a club when I was pissed one time, but didn’t get round to starting work on it till last year,’ says singer/drummer Stuart Ogilvie. ‘We’d spent so long concentrating on our own stuff for the album and it seemed like a good idea to do something completely different. We didn’t want to do an exact replica of the song so we changed the structure so it was much shorter and punkier and we worked our little Longcutisms into it (and took out the more overt religious references). We always wanted it to be a proper floor filler like the original, just with shouting and big fuck off guitars.’

The single release follows the Longcut’s high-profile tour in support of fellow adopted Mancunians The Charlatans.

‘Playing in front of massive crowds took a bit of getting used to, but nothing can beat that kind of experience, especially when we had a few of our own die-hards down the front,’ they say. ‘Blackpool Empress Ballroom is the most gorgeous venue I’ve ever seen, and when the lights went up on the crowd at the end of our set I could have died and been happy. It’s just inspired us to keep working our balls off so we can get to headline venues like that ourselves one day.’