Counterpoint

Not much is known about Delphic, apart from the fact that they are from Manchester.

Their first single "Counterpoint" is released on Belgian R&S records (go figure) and it sounds like the inevitable "crosspoint" of recent indie-dance productions like Cut Copy, Friendly Fires, more upbeat Junior Boys and fellow Manchester legends New Order and Section 25.


The Sequencer is back in poppy dance rock and "Counterpoint" hits straight on the twelve. The video, on the other hand, is a bit shitty.

Friendly Strobelight Fires

Friendly Fires are spreading all over the place at the moment. "Paris" was a great pop-single and now they are trying it big with "Skeleton Boy".

It is uncanny how much their sound resembles Cut Copy. "Skeleton Boy" could actually be a tune from "In Ghost Colours" and nobody would have noticed.
But where CC are playing with sound memories and a pawn-shop aesthetic of a global 80s subconsciousness, Friendly Fires are going boldly for the rip-off!

I am not the first one to notice the striking (it´s actually note for note) similarities of the "Skeleton" refrain to "You´re not alone", the great 1997 drum ´n bass pop hit by Olive. I almost believe that this is a viral (cross-)promotion.

Let´s compare:

Friendly Fires - Skeleton Boy


Olive - You´re not alone


Other songs on the album are at moments lifting more than ideas and concepts of The Talking Heads (The refrain of "In the hospital" is a total rip-off of "Crosseyed and Painless"). There is also a very close relationship to other contemporaries like MGMT, M83, early Gus Gus and I am also reminded of Zoot Woman, who had the same idea many years ago.

Is "Friendly Fires" a synonym for "we-use-everything-we-like-or-what-comes-in-our-way"? Is lifting whole melodies and singing them with different words the new black? After sampling and mash-ups we are now back to plain old plagiarism? Be careful young muscians, there are still too many people alive who have been listening to music ten years ago!


All in all, their debut albums is an entertaining affair that burrows a bit too much from others without giving (public) credit. Who knows what XL Recordings have paid behind the scenes. This label must know one thing or two about licensing.
Massive props for the lush, powerful production that tries to be more disco than rock. Big letdown: The overly compressed sound! This really should stop sooner than later. It´s annoying that the most advanced technology produces a sound that sounds worse than a sub par Phil Spector production.

08 From 08

Most new and interesting records which were heard at StellaVista Towers during 2008 have their own blog-post here. So, in no particular order, a recap of the tracks and albums that entertained me this year. The links lead to an earlier blog entry which either contains one or two streams or a Youtube-link.


Club 8: With "The Boy who couldn´t stop dreaming", Karolina Komstedt and Johan Angergård made one of their most restrained and breezy albums. Sun-drenched, fragile, Swedish summer-pop that is almost disappearing into thin air. I actually preferred the earlier "Strangely Beautiful" which was also re-released this year.


Morgan Geist: "Double Night Time" is Geist´s first album after his debut "The Driving Memoirs" from 1997. The whole album is great, but it´s the opener "Detroit" which really stands out for me.









Cut Copy: The first half of "In Ghost Colours" is a superb succession of hit after hit. Especially the album track "Out there on thin ice" with it´s crowd noise and euphoric lines "If that´s what it takes - don´t let it tear us apart - even if it breaks our hearts" is amazing.
The fact that I can still enjoy listening to "Hearts on fire" - after all the hype and the inevitable re-release of Guru Josh´s "Infinity" (which was definitely spawned by the success of Cut Copy) shows that CC really know how to assemble their citation-pop.


Private In fact "My Secret Lover" was already released in 2007, but this stand-out single "We got some breaking up to do" came out this year along with a remix/dub album. Private are from Denmark and have produced the most shamelessly 80s rip-off album in a genre that has many similar artists. If you are not entertained by Private you should leave this site now!


Rex The Dog "The Rex The Dog Show" is part debut album, part compilation of own and commissioned remixes. It is surprisingly nice, despite featuring a mix of the drab The Knife.
The single "Bubblicious" features the best Yazoo/Alison Moyet sample ever. It is certainly no surprise that this appeared along with the Yazoo re-union concerts.


DJ Cole Medina vs Bee Gees "Love you inside out (Pinches Mix)". This blissed out re-edit of the Bee Gees track (from "Spirits Having Flown) was listened to endlessly on my car-trip to Vancouver. Pure magic!




AxUs "Love your Brother (Abacus Rethink Dub)" marked the return of Austin Bascom. With this deep as shit production he proved that he was and is one of the most prolific deep-house producers around.






Ladytron "Velocifero" did still not bring them the desired mass appeal they so crave for.
Still, on the borderline of electro-rock Ladytron are still the best thing around. I always fall for their airport-announcer-vocals. Someone recently said they sound like Nico fronting the Marc Bolan Band. Spot on!

Cut Copy: In ghost colours

Cut Copy have upped their new album "In ghost colours" for full pre-listening on MySpace.

As expected, it is pretty good! My favourite track, apart from the three that are already known is "Out there on thin ice", which is a brilliant raise-the-roof-party-track.
"Lights & Music" and "Heart on fire" are a bit different with added bits. Very 12-inch-y.

Of course there are also some indie-guitar tracks and some short instrumental fillers and lead-ins.

The overall energy level of "In ghost colours" is much higher than "Bright like neon love" and I hope they sell truckloads of it. It will be out tomorrow, on march 22!

Cut Copy: I dreamt lights and music

Cut Copy´s new single "Lights & Music" is so instantly catchy and conforming to the "golden rules" of pop, that it should become a big hit...if we were living in a time where things like this would still exist.



Yes, the Video is a testament to the current wave of "no budget"-promos and maybe the "Be my baby one more time"-lyrics are a bit dodgy.
But it makes you want to dance and sing along like back in the day, when you were driving with your Vespa along the beach in Rimini, played PacMan in a seaside arcade while Fun Fun´s "Happy Station" was blasting through the speakers. But of course you never did all those things. You found "Happy Station" banal and would only appreciate its genious years later, when you recognized that Mel & Kim had more answers for you than Robert Smith.

Cut Copy are experts in mixing favourite sound memories to a catchy pseudo-hit formula. There are lots of references, citations, memories and interpretations in their music. They are actually better in creating mood and memory constructs that SOUND like pop-songs, than actually writing them.

In a liner note to one of their fantastic "So Cosmic"-Mixtape they note that their favourite "tracks stumble upon some sort of shared musical consciousness; a melody seemingly from the past which takes hold like a fond memory of childhood."

This shared musical subconciousness is of course firmly rooted in the decade that is on constant revival since it ended in january 1990. But while i feel that many bands, which refer to the 80s are mainly using a posture or aesthetic, Cut Copy are actually taking ideas, sounds and moods from their favourite moments and re-imagine them in their songs.

Its a bit like the character "Rachel" in "Blade Runner", a replicant with implanted memories, who wakes up and says: "I dreamt music!".

I guess that everybody who is old enough to remember the 80s will probably recognize most of the influences by name. Some Cure-ish guitars, New Order-esque basslines, Church-y vocal style, Human League, OMD, Italo-Disco, Electro-Funk and the ever present Daft Punk rhythm are the most obvious sources in their dance tracks while various shades of shoegaze and guitar-pop mark the corners for their indie-rock tracks.

But there is more. And this is where Cut Copy are tapping the subconscious minds of listeners of different ages.
20 year olds might not exactly remember the songs or sources, but they might recognize familiar sounds and moods: A disco-string-crescendo here, a familiar sounding voice there. Something you might have heard as a toddler while your mom was singing along to "Another Life" by Kano:



While I can identify the influence of Depeche Mode in their "Broken Frame"-era on songs like "Future" on Cut Copy´s debut album, other influences - like Krautrock- are as vague for me because I was only subconsciously subjected to it in my childhood.

It´s interesting that with all the references to passed eras their music does not sound like it could have really been a hit in 1983. Despite a crisp Chic/Dare/DaftPunk producttion sheen, their songs sound like they are from today. Unlike other dealers of fake nostalgia, like Air who wouldn´t sound out of place and time in the seventies.

This either proofs that Pop has finally eaten itself or that there just is no NOW now.

The very, very, very good "So Cosmic" mix can be downloaded on their blog cut-copy.blogspot.com. Its a brilliantly mixed string of influences and CutCopy songs. The way they integrated a Fleetwood Mac song into the mix is just spectacular!