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Apr 15th, 2008 - 11:04:01 |
Blinded By The Light
Cut Copy
In Ghost Colours
Modular
It’s been four years since the last Cut Copy album, Bright Like Neon Love, one that I discovered years ago on Amazon.com through recommendations, downloaded on Kazaa and haven’t seen a physical copy of in any record store. Therefore, I’ve always thought of these guys as my little secret, that nobody really knew about Cut Copy aside from me and a few others scattered across the globe. Neon Love contains one of my favorite songs ever, a poignant cosmic disco number called “Future” that blipped with Daft Punk robotics that could be the sad break-up music of R2-D2 and C-3P0. The songs on Neon Love weren’t groundbreaking musically, but there was this emotional resonance to them, be it love, life-pondering or just carefree dance tunes, that still sounds fresh today.
From the first seconds of In Ghost Colours, I can tell that Cut Copy have gone through some changes. They’re trying to branch out as songwriters and the production is more grandiose, and they’ve more to share about love, although they’re still searching for it. Girls crying and clouds with silver linings are pictures painted with the opening lyrics on “Feel The Love,” with the peppering of “oohs” in the vocals, there’s a balance of gloom and sunshine, flowers blooming and rain pelting an umbrella. The track is held together by the steady rhythm of New Wave drums and keyboards amidst the shimmering vocoders and overarching guitars.
Ghost Colours seems to be rooted in some of the basic elements of life: fire, love, ice, wind and time. It seems basic, but the three men from Melbourne keep the concepts simple enough that even though the songs might reach for the stars, they are very much of the earth. What could be more immediate than, “Lights and Music, are on my mind / be my baby, one more time?" “Lights and Music” starts with an intro that streams through like the morning tide and soars to a dance floor smash once that inescapable chorus comes in. But the track is deserving of a remix that can snag the hook and really tap the song’s potential — the same can be said for the nocturnal flip-flop “Hearts On Fire.”
Like Neon Love, Ghost Colours splits every few songs with short instrumental pieces that transform into tracks that slowly build up, prolonging the good stuff. Cut Copy is at their best when they get right to the point on cuts like “Nobody Lost, Nobody Found,” with its glossy, oozing synthesizers that sound like something Tangerine Dream left off the Risky Business soundtrack. To me, “Future” was about lovers being separated and the possibility of reunion, and the gem on Ghost Colours, “Far Away,” with a playful vintage Madonna melody, features another addictive hook about love being just out of reach. The lights shine brightest from a distance. — THOMAS MATICH
Eat My Shorts!
Child Bite
Fantastic Gusts of Blood
Suburban Sprawl Music / Quack! Media
Human hands clap simultaneously with a computer blip, then you fall into pandemonium. The synthesizer’s oscillating banshee wail pushes like a fight song, introducing a driving, almost menacingly-toned guitar riff over tightly locked percussion at breakneck speed. The tones bend upward, but somehow agreeably, and the synth starts to scream along with its master, singer Shawn Knight.
Child Bite’s music is refreshing, like a skivvies-dive into ice water; there’s really nothing that sounds like it, yet it culls from familiar spices (metal, punk, noise), specifically jarring musical sensibilities. It sweetens with irrepressible funk grooves and pop-style hooks, with shout-along choruses. A distinct, unshakable bass-n-drums foundation acts as designated driver to spasmodic guitar noodling, synthesized napalm and quavering, howled vocals reinterpreting fables and legends from Greek mythology. Here, the local quintet is percolated at all points with fiery electronics, pounding percussion, hooky guitars, bouncing bass lines and adroit saxophone/brass enhancements. The sound is full, warm and invigorating, melodies waiver, sometimes wildly. A poignant demolition derby packed in perfectly. — JEFF MILO
Osborne
Osborne
Ghostly International
Someone should mash-up old-school Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath with killer electronic/ghetto-tech/house/hip-hop beats. That’s the idea I got after listening to Osborne, the latest project from Detroit’s own Todd Osborn. Mixing Ozzy with techno might be a horrible idea, but at least it would be more interesting than what Osborne has to offer. A lot of the songs remind me of background music you hear in racing games when you’re choosing your vehicle. The tracks are well produced and have a nice thump to them, but there’s nothing here I haven’t heard. “Our Definition of a Breakdown” is laughable, a DJ scratching a record and talking about it? 1979 called. — SEBASTIAN SINCLAIR
Portishead
Third
Island
What have Portishead been up to since 199-whatever? Well, 2008 brings their third album, creatively (or lazily) entitled Third, so hopefully they’ve spent all this time traveling the world buying weird instruments like bongos made by rainforest people and keyboards they found in junkyards in the seediest ghettos of Darfur. Third isn’t Dummy (although it tries to be), but Portishead thinks you’re stupid enough to pay admission to their shitty Congo museum exhibit while this dribble plays in the background and Wilson from Home Improvement makes you some ancient herbal tea and feeds Beth Gibbons his insane poetry to sing. And a turtle outpaces these beats. — THOMAS MATICH
in my ear
The Good Things
Taking the blues of The Stones, The Beatles experimentalism and floating it down a Kinks river, The Good Things know rock ‘n’ roll. The band's new record, a free EP entitled Side 2, will be available online after their show at The Stick on April 19. Here's their playlist:
Dr. Dog
We All Belong
Spoon
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Van Morrison
Blowin’ Your Mind
The Kinks
Lola Versus Powerman ...
Luna Sea
Period
Emery
The Question
Frank Sinatra
The Hits
The Beatles
Let It Be
Neil Young
Decade
A Band of Bees
Free the Bees
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