(Modular/Universal)

Six years ago the rock/pop scene and the dance/electronic scene could not have been further apart in their sounds, philosophies and approaches to making music.  Many popular dance music producers had gravitated further towards stale four-on-the-floor rhythm structures with much less emphasis on tune and melody, and more on making a dance floor heave in a serious way.  Over time, this stale method has run its course, done its dash, and it was only a matter of time before producers remembered what most music should be about, especially dance music, and that is tune, melody and fun.  And now, with artists like Tiefschwarz, Black Strobe, Putsch 79, Seelenluft and Australia’s own Cut Copy, the pop/rock scene and the dance music scene are no longer poles apart and are borrowing ideas from each other with a net result that is fresh, vibrant, interesting but still very danceable.

Bright Like Neon Love is Cut Copy’s debut album released on Modular Recordings. Since their 2001 EP, I Thought Of Numbers, Cut Copy have moved away from beat and sample-based music and have headed into more electro/pop based stuff utilizing real instruments as well as electronics.  And this is very evident in Bright Like Neon Love. The track Future, the lead single off the album, is prime example of this.  An excellent piece of melody-driven, quirky electro-pop with crunchy guitars, Pixies-style bass and Dan Whitford’s under-stated vocals.

Future is almost a blueprint for many of the other tracks on the album, many having the common elements of phat bass lines, poppy, melodic electro-styled synth lines, jangly guitars, and quirky, interesting rhythm structures. The opening track Time Stands Still borrows heavily from this template as does Saturdays, which reminds of the pop sensibilities of Cassius and Daft Punk. This is hardly surprising though, considering that Philippe Zdar, one half of French House royalty Cassius and Motorbass, produced the album.   

The next track, Going Nowhere, sees Whitford dust off his old Les Paul and bang out some garage-rock style chords over a simple rock beat and wobbly bassline.We are only at the halfway mark of the album and the eclecticism of the album is already shining brightly, just like neon.  That Was Just A Dream offers up more French-house inspired fun, but with the added edge of Whitfords dreamy vocals, whilst on The Twilight we get a wicked guitar onslaught replete with crunchy, distorted guitar chords, a real live drum kit, and that phat bass again.  And of course no true ‘pop’ album would be complete without a little nod, on Autobahn Music Box in this case, to the king of pop Brian Wilson.

Bright Like Neon Love is a bright, fresh sound that is an eclectic mix of electro-pop, French house, and guitar pop. In a time when NME have decided to make rock cool again and dull rock clones are being born each week, here comes an Aussie band with something different to offer. Cut Copy have an inventive and unpretentious sound that will surely stand the test of time, more so than many stock standard and, dare I say it, disposable, dance music tunes. They embark on a national tour very soon, so if you like your music with a dash of melody, a pinch of quirkiness, and dollops of fun, then I’d urge you to catch them whenever you can.