First Glances – The Cutter
Threatening to explode at any time, there’s a close-knit scene bubbling under the radar in Manchester. The city draws and nurtures talent of all kinds, and new darkwave trio The Cutter are very much keeping it in the family.
Frontman Ewan Kinrade’s doomed croon lifts directly from his LEASH band’s (FKA Ballamona) most atmospheric neo-industrial moments, while post-punk specialist Charlie Marriott’s guitars sooth as much as they punish (as previously heard on Document’s A Camera Wanders All Night EP, more recently with suffocating shoegazers Cruush, as well as alongside alt-pop darling Phoebe Green). Secret synth weapon Lucy Green (instrumental composition maestro under the name elucyve and songwriter with her sister Phoebe) rounds out the line-up, picking the silver lining out of every cloud with twinkling new-wave precision.
Self-confessed devotees of Echo & The Bunnymen (which explains the name), The Cutter pack a pulsating punch as a live unit, their debut self-titled EP committing every ounce of their fierce stage energy to tape. Kinrade’s gothic drawl haunts the mix throughout, his insidious repeats less choruses and more the embodiment of the insistent voices in your head. Whipcrack drum machine meets marauding darkwave beats to lay down a groove, an undertow of bass revealing skitters of guitar that glint like a knife under alleyway streetlight. Killer riffs and delay pedals fill in the blanks with noise-wave scree, textural synths blossoming like creeping growth on a timelapse petri dish.
Ranging from the antisocial to the euphoric, the downright melancholy to the outright serene, The Cutter are as modern and as traditional a family as they come.
Catch The Cutter live this autumn:
• Sheffield – 27th September – Float Along Festival
• Manchester – 11th October – YES Basement
• Blackpool – 17th October – Bootleg Social
• London – 18th October – Old Blue Last
• Northampton – 9th November – The Black Prince
~The Cutter EP is released digitally and on cassette September 11th 2025 via Ramber Records.~