Ought at Islington Mill review

Image: Ought (Credits: Laura Harvey & Brett Davis)

The Bug’s 2010 dub classic 'Skeng' faded just before Montreal’s Ought walked on-stage at Islington Mill. 

The disparity between the intro and the stripped-back post-punk set that followed was apparent, but it did offer food for thought.

It got me thinking. Grime appears ‒ with the likes of Stormzy and JME ‒ to be back on the up and is predominantly a soapbox for young lyricists, while word-smithery is something that on first glance, contemporary guitar bands in Britain are lacking.

But bands with a distinct voice do exist. You’ve just got to dig a little deeper ‒ and it looks like you need to head off the beaten track to find them, in this case to ‘The Other City’ to see a Canadian outfit who've received critical acclaim from the likes of Rolling Stone, Crack Magazine and Pitchfork. 

There’s something to savour in a band whose words offer a substantial meaning, feeling and insight into someone who struggles to live with their own thoughts.

That band is Ought. The band consisting of four twenty-some-things, released their second full length last year on Constellation records. They channel their energy with a frenetic and planned precision.

On a warm spring evening, the early part of the set was subdued. This was forgotten immediately during a sequence of three tracks: ‘Men For Miles’, the epic genius of ‘Sun Coming Down’ and the superbly catchy and sarcastic ‘Weather Song’. 

Front-man Tim Beeler repeats "There were men for miles" during the first of the three. There’s more repetition. This time he rattles “And doesn't it just bring a tear to your eye” over and over in his distinct Canadian tones.

Is this ‒ a song what seems to be about the lack of women in a nightclub situation ‒ Beeler’s own anxiety-laden take on Skepta’s ‘Too Many Men?’ Possibly. 

Beeler can be scathing and almost prophetic. His cynicism builds and builds, but he lets it all go during the gargantuan climax of 'Beautiful Blue Sky', where the set hinges. 

I tried to avoid the Byrne references, and failed. There are clear Talking Heads influences with the band’s sound and the lyrical content.

The line “You’re saying a lot but you’re not saying anything” off Heads’ Psycho Killer springs to mind, but not in direct reference to this band, it’s Ought’s Mancunian contemporaries this applies to. Like Byrne, all that Beeler says ‒ with his astute social observations ‒ is interesting. 

The crazed repetitions of “beautiful weather today” are a point well made, albeit strangely in his unique vocal style.

“I’m no longer afraid to I'm no longer afraid to die ‘because that is all that I have left. Yes! Yes! And I'm no longer afraid to dance tonight”, he shouts as it reaches its crescendo, a transcendent moment and the band’s most treasured song. 

Barring that wonderful moment, it's fast-paced tracks such as 'On The Line' which do the trick, and when the band really fired on all cylinders. 

Ought are twitchy, frenzied and clearly very fine-tuned after two LPs and a shorter EP released within 18 months. They’re excellent live and bring the jittery, chaotic nature of their records even more forcefully than I imagined.

An exciting all-male, guitar-based four piece in 2016? Well, I never. 

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