Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours

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michael

Bring out the vacuum
Crikey, this apparently debuted at number one in Oz. Not bad.

Anyway, I think it's great. First album was pretty patchy, but find this one a real rush.

Some of the goodness of it reminds me of what I thought I should like about bands like Phoenix - MOR vibes modernised to take into account dance music - and it's probably in many ways a very nostalgic thing, but it slyly dodges pastiche by synthesising distinctive sounding songs out of all the throwback components.

Hope it's not getting dismissed as nu rave or anything...
 
D

DJ PIMP

Well-known member
Amazing for it to be so successful in the charts. No reason why it shouldn't be, but still, that's great. Really colorful, inventive album. Manages to keep it light even though putting it together must have been a labour of love.

Australia though? I listen to the music but can't get past an image of everyone rocking out round a BBQ - chuck us another tinny Gazza cheers mate. The music has that fun, basically amiable, too sunny to be precious/uptight quality I associate with Australia (compared to say Ladytron which is all euro-frost). Suits what's happening at the moment. Fred Falke has done a couple of remixes for Modular which makes the Australia/France connection official in my eyes.

Still prefer the Midnight Juggernauts over this though... though they both have that Modular sound ;)

Sometimes I feel like Daft Punk are basically the progenitors of everything. It does my head in.
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
Definitely in my top 17 dense, referential pop/dance/rock albums of the first quarter of 2008, anyway.
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
DJ PIMP said:
Sometimes I feel like Daft Punk are basically the progenitors of everything. It does my head in.
Click to expand...

Just read that Cut Copy played support for Daft Punk towards the end of last year, so I guess that helps to explain their massive surge of popularity between albums. Also the DFA production angle's got to help. Always found Tim Goldsworthy more interesting than James Murphy...
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
michael said:
Definitely in my top 17 dense, referential pop/dance/rock albums of the first quarter of 2008, anyway.
Click to expand...

Haha, turns out to actually be my favourite album of the year, at least from a quantity perspective - surely the thing I listened to most. Still not sick of it.

Further to what I said about Tim Goldsworthy above, he's a name I've always idly looked out for, curious to see whether he really did provide the elements I liked in UNKLE... I liked some UNKLE tunes way back, but nothing since Goldsworthy left.
 
Trevelyan

Trevelyan

Member
I liked the high points on that record ("Hearts on Fire," etc.) a lot, but found most of it to be rather bland... amiable music to put on at a party, I guess.
 
C

claphands

Poorly-known member
Trevelyan said:
I liked the high points on that record ("Hearts on Fire," etc.) a lot, but found most of it to be rather bland... amiable music to put on at a party, I guess.
Click to expand...

yeah, I saw them live before I'd heard of them and had hearts on fire, lights on music, so haunted, and a couple of others stuck in my head for days. I dug the whole album at first, but now when I listen to the album I almost always skip to the singles.

I really love those singles though
 
P

polystyle

Well-known member
michael said:
Further to what I said about Tim Goldsworthy above, he's a name I've always idly looked out for, curious to see whether he really did provide the elements I liked in UNKLE... I liked some UNKLE tunes way back, but nothing since Goldsworthy left.
Click to expand...

Michael , I can confirm what you are saying.
Tim was / is the man programming the good stuff.
We worked together on Beat Connection remix bk in 2001 or was it 2002.
He was making something from ... not much !
Tim worked on the Hercules & Love thing as well.
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
Thanks Polystyle, that's interesting to hear! Hercules & TLFA have remixed the latest Cut Copy single...

I felt like some of the above about Cut Copy's first album - good singles, forget about the rest. I like listening to this one all the way through. The noodly interludes help in that regard.

As for Friendly Fires, I generally don't like this sorta indie meets dance music kind of music. There are bits and pieces on Modular, Cut Copy's label, but mainly I like them as googly French Touch remix fodder. I generally just find the songwriting pretty lacking - lots of great noises and nods to this and that in there, but ... a bit of a vacuum in the middle of it all. I'm sure plenty of people feel the same about Cut Copy too, but I reckon the songs are largely great.
 
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DJ PIMP

Well-known member
thats what i find endearing about the cut copy album... the songs are very nicely constructed and the album flows well. it basically *is* a great general audience party album, which is something of a rarity nowadays?
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
'Out There on the Ice was my record to play five times on repeat in December. Brilliant songwriting, nice electro production. Sometimes simple and derivative is good.
 
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DJ PIMP

Well-known member
i'd describe it as pastiche rather than derivative - seems a bit kinder. first time i listened to it i was blown away by the detail and consummate construction. i bet it took a lot of effort to make that album... a real labour of love.
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
I reckon down the track it'll be easy enough to spot a Cut Copy song, which is what lifts it above pastiche... as I said a different way in my first post. Also it's not like any one track refers to any one song or even style.

Haha, for ages I thought the chorus for 'Out There On The Ice' went "There's a gay you know, who'll be there for you." I was hypercorrecting for how Aussies and Kiwis tend to say "day" so it sounds like "die" to non-Antipodean ears.
 
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