Cut City - Cut City (Ep) (CD)

All Music Guide

Cut City's selftitled EP for GSL adds its own clamor to the din of dour young men everywhere channeling postpunk and damaged disco. The Swedish trio certainly has the tenets. Max Hansson's vocal is austere, and he says things that sound like an aside from a Kafka novel. ("This might serve a purpose if we're acting naturally," from "This Exile Reads Me.") His guitar switches between insistently strummed pinpricks and squawky right angles while Cut City's rhythm section is powered by frantic hihat, tense treble, and 2,000 spins of Wire's Pink Flag. At four brief songs, the EP flies by. But it's a satisfactory representation of Cut City's derivative yet earnest sound. The catchy deadpan strut "Statues" is a highlight.

- Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide