Cut Copy - 'In Ghost Colours' (Modular) Released 05/05/08

Share

On their second album 'In Ghost Colours', Australian trio Cut Copy have found themselves in bloom during a Renaissance period of Australian dance music. As one of the most eagerly anticipated albums of the year Down Under, the follow up to 2004’s slow burning 'Bright Like Neon Love' has far surpassed expectations on both foreign and domestic shores.

The album, produced by DFA wunderkind Tim Goldsworthy, is a vivid journey through a brilliantly eclectic world of electronic loops, effects, filters, guitar melodies and vocal harmonies that are ecstatically anthemic. It’s an album that stretches the imagination in the same sense that it gives...gives some more and keeps on giving.

With four years between albums it could have been easy for the Melbourne act to have become lost in the rave scene wilderness, spiralling endlessly from trip to trip through addled brains and dilated pupils. Instead, it’s clear that with 'In Ghost Colours', Cut Copy were in search of something more, something with substance in dance music, and the inclusion of significant guitar work is testament to their constant touring.  And while rocking guitar melded with dance music seems like a tiresome concept, in the hands of Cut Copy the combination sounds fresh and invigorating.
 
The album is as experimental as it is likeable and boasts a stunning collection of dancefloor hits like ‘Lights & Music,’ ‘So Haunted’ and lead single ‘Hearts On Fire’ that come on like an expertly cultivated lesson in dance music as fine art.

Owing its jangly guitar hooks to ELO and its primordial bass beats to Daft Punk, opener ‘Feel The Love’ sets a twisting, writhing tone that itches with creative ingenuity and understated cool. In contrast, ‘Hearts On Fire’ is a thumping ‘80s-inspired dance song that cleverly references its influences while remaining light-years ahead of much of that era’s cheese. The song reverberates with energy, fusing jazzy horn sections with Haddaway-esque synths while others like the epic ‘So Haunted’ are so understated in their effortlessly cool delivery, they’re in danger of imploding through lack of application – or so it seems.

As a follow up to a debut that was remarkably slow to make its sound heard, 'In Ghost Colours' has captured a rare balance between the mature, sound-furthering sonic progression that is bequeathed on any even remotely interesting debut LP and an album that captures an ever rarer sense of fun. It’s a remarkable achievement that’s been almost too long in the making but now that it’s here it’s time celebrate one more time.