Arctic Reviews

A place which rarely undersells it's talent for musical husbandry, even now Manchester is still feeling the effects of it's own ground zero moment, that being the over documented Sex Pistols gigs of 1976. If you accept that almost all of it's sons or daughters then are scions of John Lydon in one way or another (Even Mick Hucknall), it follows that the chemical reaction between post-industrial stoicism and metropolitan boredom created the perfect love hate relationship - the south loved itself, and the north hated it.

Robert Green and Matt Bolter have a history working on the margins of the north west's oddly suffocating musical networks for more than a decade, a genesis during which the duo's press release has them growing up in the city and "Mixing it with some of the most influential icons of British music". The local megastar in question is then revealed to be the never-less-than-messianic Johnny Marr's brother. As if to emphasise this bent for self deprecating humour with a slightly grim streak, the pair named Sawing Through The Wrong Leg in homage to an episode of 1970's sitcom Rising Damp, and in a similar fit of non-conformism also go on to namedrop the equally bygone George And Mildred during Wrong Side of Town.

If all this is making Statedancer sound like they reside in the same league as some of those awkard, sardonic mancs like Cooper-Clarke or Mark E. Smith, then apologies all round. Sawing..does definitely feature some Ripping Yarns style weirdness though; The Chill of The Stethoscope's obsession with clog-popping, and the frankly indecipherable message of With My Reputation's? chorus - "Can't shift the smoker's cough/I can't run fast enough/Find out all bets are off/when do the payments stop?".  

Clearly you wouldn't want either of them with you when your test results came back, but medical fixations aside, Green and Bolter create music which at times borders on offering a miracle cure. Opener Winter To Your Spring is a glorious rush of sweet-toothed harmonies and choppy guitars that should bring a tear to the eye of Boo Radleys fans, a feat repeated on the classic garage pop of Quickly Running Out Of Road. Elsewhere they're unafraid to skate close to the jazz and folk inflections that are Badly Drawn Boy territory - especially on Now's Not My Time - whilst The Sun Went In..is folk without the beardy, sandal wearing complications. Maybe Johnny Marr's brother should've hung around a bit longer.