cut copy

New Tunes

Tim Donlan

Jun 27, 2011 • 1 min read

Last summer my zone-out record of choice was Delorean – Subiza, and this year I think it will be Washed out – Within and Without. The indie-bloggers have already coined a new genre (post-chillwave) to describe the record, but it draws heavily from the now classic synths of New Wave and the software wizardry of contemporaries Panda Bear and Ulrich Schnauss. The brilliant thing about the record is that each song feels like a different interpretation of the same motif, like light fractured through a prism.

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
All the instantly classic folk melodies and incomparable vocals of Robin Pecknold are back, but it’s the songwriting that really sets the record apart. The title track leads the charge, with the existential ponderings of young man questioning his place in the world.

Cut Copy – Zonoscope
Cut Copy sounds like a band that was transported directly out of the 1980s of some alternate universe. They match the New Wave sound perfectly, but they put together songs with the grandeur of a band that would be selling out arenas, or at the very least opening for New Order. Never mind that they’re an Australian import that gets some praise on indy music blogs. Maybe they can do videos for Nike:

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