There's something strangely familiar about The Longcut; the anguished vocals, the electronic beats and the grinding, epic rock guitars suggest that Six.By Seven have gone back into the studio and recorded another album. Certainly, that's the impression given by introducing 'A Last Act Of Desperate Men'; a song where alienation and paranoia are conjured up in an excellent seven-minute state of intent. It's a cracking start and it's perhaps to be expected that it would be hard to maintain it. The Longcut appear to be a resolutely serious band whose only chinks of light arrive via passages of lush keyboards and - on 'A Tried And Test Method - some delightful chiming guitar. Elsewhere it's all doom and gloom which is occasionally great ('A Quiet Life' evokes the intensity and darkness of The Cult, 'Holy Funk' is a strong instrumental) but often claustrophobic and suffocating. Yet for the excellent songs they do have, they're well worth persevering with.