Review: Cut Copy "Zonoscope"

Over a meal, I had a friend wax philosophic about this new band "Cut Copy". He said it was this great 'French' (in actuality, Australia) band that sounded a lot like Joy Division. Once I got home, I noodled around on Google and saw a video of them performing on the Jimmy Fallon show. These guys were performing some amazing music, but there was this guy wearing a gorilla outfit. I'm not sure what that was about, but he was going nuts on the tom toms. I think it distracted a bit from the song, but it definitely got my attention, so I decided to do some more digging.
As it turns out, the band is from Australia and are a throwback to 1980's synth pop. What's great to hear about this band is that they take sounds from my youth and actually modernize it with a fresh take on today's music. So, with Cut//Copy officially on my radar, I found their latest CD, "Zonoscope" at my local record store and I picked it up.
I'm not sure why I was skeptical in the beginning, but this album grew on me like a fungus. After the first listen, there were a few tracks that stuck out for me and I thought were interesting. "Need You Now" brings back the zany goodness of the auxiliary percussion (ie. more cowbells) akin back to Big Audio Dynamite, "Pharoahs & Pyramids" takes me down memory lane with the unique synth sounds that early Depeche Mode provided and "Corner Of The Sky" touched upon a few Sigue Sigue Sputnik nerve-endings.
You know that a band is good when they can bring you an original sound that seems fresh and new, but upon further discovery you can pick it apart and point out bits and phrases of similar sounding notes in a wide multitude of songs from that era. The sounds are the only thing similar in the music, the notes are completely their own and bring about a sophistication and respect for the bands that pioneered this genre in the mid 80's. Australia's, Cut//Copy are masterful at what they do and there is a reason why their music is popping up in all kinds of commercials and reality tv spots. The music is timeless and fun.

The Use of Wind Chimes As a Musical Instrument

Wind chimes have long been used for a variety of reasons over the years. This ranges from warding off evil spirits to creating positive energy in a particular area. They are also known for the pleasing sounds that they create and were one of the world's first musical instruments. Numerous musicians have utilised them to influence their compositions.
Wind chimes are similar to various other percussion instruments such as tam-tams and cymbals, in terms of creating inharmonic spectra. This means that the frequencies of the overtones depart from whole multiples of the fundamental frequency, leading to inharmonic sounds. Each chime will play at a different pitch, whilst none will play a specific note. Despite this, they can be altered to bring out the fundamental frequency and thus produce harmonic notes. This is done through tuning to dampen the inharmonic overtones, making each chime possible to play specific notes. A method of achieving this is to hang the chimes at about a fifth of their length to dampen the higher partials. Chimes have been known to produce a rich sounding scale with academics going as far as studying them for research projects.
With wind chimes coming in different sizes, shapes and materials, the sounds created can vary significantly. The frequency produced will rely heavily on these particular factors and musicians have often taken this into consideration when composing. Oliver Messiaen is one particular musician who has used chimes made from materials such as wood, glass and shell, helping him to produce rhythms with significant clarity, as described by some fans. David Sitek, who is a guitarist for the band TV on the Radio, is known to add texture to his music occasionally by hanging a wind chime from his guitar. This is relatively unheard of in the music world and it shows how musicians are willing to experiment with different instruments.
Wind chimes have also been used to create music for video games, most notably in the Vanilla Dome level for Super Mario World. Koji Kondo, one of the lead composers for Nintendo can be the person who takes credit for this unusual use of an ancient instrument in a modern setting. Despite wind chimes being one of the world's first instruments, this example shows that they still have a future in the musical world and we may still see more uses in various ways, as the instrument seems far from consigned to history.

Kamalini Mukherjee Hot