By: Patrick Topping (@ptopp_ing) –
Cut Copy. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto)
Last night, the Melbourne, Australia-based Cut Copy brought a pervasively euphoric mix of indie synthpop to the exuberant crowd at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto.
Emerging during the surge of bedroom dream-pop in the mid-2000’s, musician and DJ Dan Whitford’s heady concoction of synth, electro-psychedelia, and Balearic rhythms propelled him into the indie circuit, most notably attaining commercial success with 2011’s jangly-indie rock “Where I’m Going”, a song least indicative of his style. This year’s release of Free Your Mind gleefully defies any expectations of commercial tones by forgoing indie-rock songcraft, to instead immerse in lighted neon grooves that recall the synth arpeggiations and sampling patterns of the Chicago warehouse and Ibiza electronic music scene. Cut Copy enlivened their music for the Toronto crowd by supplementing the typical four-piece rock ensemble with a slew of keyboards, samplers, and drum machines for the synth hooks, and timbales and woodblocks to deliver percussive Balearic rhythms.
Enlisting DFA Records member Larry Gus as an opener served as a reminder of Whitford’s origins, the solo performer stood behind a table of samplers and drum machines. His reverb-drenched psychedelia loops draw from the deeply steeped organic samplings of soul and astral-jazz from his 2013 debut album Years Not Living. Grappling to inject energy into the languorous material, his music was pitched to a maximalist Animal Collective level of cacophony, embodied by the performer’s flailed dancing, and ultimately garnered applause from the eager audience.
As the house lights dimmed, two neon-rectangles at the back of the stage lit up to the sampled vocals and opening eponymous track from Free Your Mind. The flickering hi-hat dance grooves whirled the audience into a dancing mood as Whitford’s falsetto crooning and spirited gestures welcomed the audience to partake in the early excitement. The band smoothly transitioned into the crowd-singalong on “Where I’m Going” paired with the twee-rock, fluttered-synth pop blend of “Feel the Love”, from 2008’s In Ghost Colours, after which Whitford declared that Toronto is one of his favourite places to play, in response to the crowd’s exuberance.
Mid-set highlights included the clear fan-favourite “Hearts on Fire”, preceded by “So Haunted” whose thrashy three-guitar assault interspersed a floating synthy mall-pop chorus, and burst into an explosive dance-section, a dancing Whitford jerked his lanky knees upward while his flanking guitarist hurtled across the stage crashing cymbals with a microphone stand. The set peaked with “Out There On The Ice”, whose bass-heaped jungle rhythms climaxed with a techno-styled beat-mash, squelchy synth hooks, and, surprisingly, an air raid siren, and on Free Your Mind‘s “Let Me Show You Love”a stabbed, oscillating synth hook and striding disco-house rhythm unfurled into a frenzy of neon grooves and guitar feedback, as the evening’s opener guitarist Kirin J Callinan briefly joined the foray.
At its peaks, Whitford succeeded at translating his warehouse-electro-styled music into the live setting, but some instances revealed the underlying programming, as loops continued to morph and contort while performers played little to nothing on their instruments, left to serve as hype-men and wave their arms at the crowd. The cohesive set list favoured 2008’s In Ghost Colours, narrowly outnumbering material from Free Your Mind and shadowing Zonoscope, as the high-energy performance created a palpable humidity of sweat that clung to the exhausted and happy attendees.
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Cut Copy
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Larry Gus
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Kirin J Callinan
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