Tired of all the profane melancholy out there in radioworld right now? Well, you wouldn’t be alone, I feel it too. Those in need of a little musical pick-me-up however, need look no further. Sounding something like Glasvegas might, if they’d spent all afternoon getting ripped to the tits on MDMA, with Happy As Can Be, Kiwi quartet Cut Off Your Hands have crafted a the kind of pumpingly melodic build up that could persuade Rip Van Winkle to jump out of bed and dig out his gym membership. An equally upbeat and instantly shoutable staccato bridge leading into a glorious hands-in-the-air chorus mark Happy As Can Be out, not only as a dancefloor filler but also a veritable blue-touch-paper track that’s bound to ignite the atmosphere at Cut Off Your Hands live shows. In fact the only thing that would seem to be preventing this track making a full on assault on the singles charts is it’s non eligibility. Happy As Can Be is taken from the five track EP of the same name which is released on the 3rd of November.

Make no mistake about it, big things beckon for Cut Off Your Hands. Nominated in the breakthrough category alongside the all conquering Flight of The Conchords at this years New Zealand Music Awards, these Auckland boys spent their summer building a reputation on this side on planet with a host of UK festival shows and support slots for pop heavyweights Black Kids and The Wombats. Produced by ex-Suede maestro Bernard Butler their debut album You and I is already attracting praise down-under, and is sure to cause a something of a stir when it hits these shores early in the new year.

Cut Off Your Hands are definitely worth checking out.

Reviewed by WINSTON’S ZEN for AltSounds.