Cut Copy is the one to beat

The band shines with its new album In Ghost Colours.

By Kelsey Whipple

Published April 18, 2008

In the continuing saga that is the dance-rock landscape — never the twain shall meet — the hybrid is an enigma. It’s a wonder, then, that Cut Copy makes it look so easy, as though all the volatile synth and rocky guitar excessories add up to not two, but one giant melding of genres — all of it danceable, if previously elusive. It’s rare to find a band that fits so well onstage between rock and pop. As second acts go, Cut Copy has the market cornered. The greatest misconception about genre bending is that any attempt to do so must be marked by its staples, the far-reaching fingers of acts such as Justice and Daft Punk. And though these Australians made that mistake on their debut, they weren’t about to repeat it. More than anything else, In Ghost Colours feels like the work of a band that de-emphasized the “Copy” part of its name — gone is Justice’s “biggest, baddest” approach to sound, replaced by hook upon hook of synthy rainbow pop. So far, so Human League. Standout track “Lights and Music” eschews the kind of sticky electronica made popular by New Order, but where some lines bleed into the ‘80s, others are distinctly futuristic. Leader Dan Whitford’s background as a DJ shows through in the dance floor-focused song, as his empty voice bleats out lyrics reminiscent of “You Spin Me ‘Round (Like a Record)”: “Lights and music are on my mind/Be my baby one more time.” Which is awesome, obviously. The feeling that you’ve just missed Girl Talk doesn’t end with individual songs, as In Ghost Colours is constructed for seamless transition between songs, like one giant DJ set. This isn’t an album you’ve heard before, one drowning in effects only to be rescued by the occasional guitar line. Where Cut Copy proves its weight in glitter is in the album’s tempos, a consistently immediate variety of delicate and voracious momentums. The band plays both extremes without making either too extreme, its songs made more accessible by the sheer gall of a mix between free and easy and extremely glitzy. At this point in history, knob twiddling can only take an electro band so far. Although the Aussies sample frequently, the album’s symbiotic relationship between rock and dance never falters. “Hearts on Fire”’s club-friendly synth sits comfortably beside the dynamism of the softer “Strangers in the Wind” to back up the band’s friendly irreverence for genres. Why pick just one when you can have 30? The sign of a good pop-rock crossover album is whether both parties “get it.” If they do, they’ll buy it. In Ghost Colours’ alternation between full-on guitar pop (“Unforgettable Season”) and blatant electronica (“Far Away”) allows it to occupy the space between both, in a way that few of their genreless peers have been able to similarly juggle. If you’re still uncomfortable with Hot Chip, Cut Copy has broken down electronica into manageable, byte-sized pieces, a compromise even the hardest rockers will find attractive. Right now, Cut Copy operates somewhere between unknown and underappreciated, but they won’t for long. In mixing the stadium and the strobe lights, Cut Copy has established itself as a frontrunner in power-pop-electro, in a way that is both easy to love and easy to sustain. In the club or outside of it, these guys are the ones to beat.