Is there such a thing as global music any more? A decade ago it was easy to hear some artists – Phoenix, Foster The People, M83 – and think that it seemed perfect for soundtracking a model strutting a catwalk, a business conference for some massive software company, or a Swiss nightclub where a Martini costs more than you make in a week.
Cut Copy – a quartet who began in Australia but now find themselves located individually around the world – were a part of this loose gathering of artists, finding success with In Ghost Colours and particularly Zonoscope, but then threw the world a curve ball in releasing 2016’s January Tape, a collection of ambient pieces which spoke to pushing against the tide.
Freeze/Melt finds them contemplating what a new phase could be, rather than setting out for a more specific destination. Front man and creative kernel Dan Whitford can still write the hits, with openers Cold Water and Like Breaking Glass settling in to familiar, slightly regimented synth-pop-by-numbers, but elsewhere there’s a lack of surety, Stop Horizon more interrupted than upscaled when the vocals at last kick in after five word free minutes.
If an overpowering cynicism has taken away the confidence of performers who want to cross borders with their work, it may only be a temporary setback. Freeze/Melt though sounds like a band in transition from that Swiss club to somewhere much less familiar.
You can read the full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 