Ought @ Manchester Deaf Institute, 2 September

Even a cursory listen to last year’s breakthrough record, More Than Any Other Day, should be enough to bring home the peculiar, contradictory niche that Ought have carved out for themselves. They are, at their heart, a post-punk band specialising in the kind of angular guitars and spiky rhythms that are very much the genre’s calling card, and yet they frequently pull off the trick of sounding kind of languid, too; it’s a strange juxtaposition, sharp edges so often cloaked in a shroud of drone. Last time out in Manchester, half a mile or so up the road at Sound Control, they stayed relatively true to that formula onstage, too, but if tonight’s show at The Deaf Institute is anything to go by, their upcoming, quickfire follow-up to More Than Any Other Day could be a different beast entirely.

Both the older cuts and the material that they do air from Sun Coming Down feel meaty tonight, fleshed-out with a sharp focus that wasn’t always prevalent on the last LP. There’s an urgency, tempo and – in places – venom that elevates the Montreal natives beyond what they’ve laid down on record; Beautiful Blue Sky teems with aggression, complex new cut Passionate Turn zigs and zags with a palpable youthful vigour, and New Calm Pt. II dropped as part of the encore, feels genuinely punchy. More than that, Tim Darcy, fronting the band, suddenly seems to have much more of a commanding stage presence to him than last time out – Ought seem to be making strides on stage as quick as they’re turning out new material.