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Cut Copy are set to return in 2008 with the shimmering timelessness of 'In Ghost Colours'. Haunted with machines of the past and sounds of the future, 'In Ghost Colours' inhabits the kind of space in time where trends are irrelevant and music is about feeling rather than following and 1969 is just as relevant as 2020. At once both jacking and jangly, electronic and organic, Cut Copy have crafted a record filled with glorious sounds and moods and that unashamedly pops with hooks and melodies for eons.
'In Ghost Colours' traverses genres effortlessly, from already-anthem 'Hearts On Fire's epic sax-house to the noisy blissout of 'So Haunted'. For Cut Copy the record was an exercise in drawing parallels between favourites old and new and trying to find a meeting point in between - from the vocodered robo-pop of French house to prog's soaring harmonies to the texture of shoegaze, 'In Ghost Colours' lands at some sort of trans-galaxial intersection between these disparate planets.
This idea was something that appealed to Tim Goldsworthy, DFA's inhouse producer, programming guru, synth mogul and eventually 'muse' for 'In Ghost Colours'. Goldsworthy was enlisted to get nerdy on the project after a series of conversations with the band, who were admitted DFA fans, and when frontman Dan Whitford found he had found an equal to his obsession with ELO's 'Time' record. When it was revealed that Goldsworthy had dropped out of school to follow My Bloody Valentine around England in the 80s and could pinpoint every pedal that was used for every sound on 'Loveless' the contract was signed in blood. And so the band travelled to New York in early 2007 to spend 6 weeks tracking 'In Ghost Colours' at DFA's 'Plantain Studio' in the West Village, geeking out on DFA's collection of vintage analogue equipment and on an endless hunt for decent coffee.
The songs that Cut Copy had collected in the period since 'Bright Like Neon Love' arrived in New York as promising bones of a more assured, song-based follow up. Upon encountering Goldsworthy's approach to recording, which Dan revealed involved 'a lot of experimentation. A lot of the time it was a matter of listening to where a track was at, then going over and picking up a random piece of gear, or messing around with pedals and filter, and seeing what you could get from it. Whether it ended up in the finished track or not, it was all a part of the process, and it was a fun and experimental one.' This approach meant some sounds you hear on the record are entirely unique and impossible to replicate. From the epic trance breakdown in 'Far Away', to the sawtooth synth bass on 'Out There On The Ice', to when an old radio receiver was plugged direct into the analogue desk for 'Voices In Quartz', these sharp, succinct pop arrows to the heart are benefited from an array of special sonic sparkles.
The progression from 'Bright Like Neon Love' to 'In Ghost Colours' is brazenly apparent from opening track 'Feel The Love', an acoustic guitar led stomp of a space rock tune, instantly unforgettable and with recognizable Cut Copy glow. Where 'Bright Like Neon Love' was charmingly vague and hazy, 'In Ghost Colours' is directly to the point and efficient in it's songcraft, with vocals much more apparent and Whitford's imprint all over every track. The record is sewn together with passages of woozy dreamscapes between the straight up jams.
The Cut Copy legacy continues, 'In Ghost Colours' set for release 22nd March 2009.
