Review: Now Wave and WHP present... Cut Copy @ Manchester Academy

Date: Weds 26th October

Words: Will Orchard

Melbourne’s Cut Copy may have ridden the wave of the mid-noughties electronic indie boom – think the long-forgotten likes of Cazals, VHS or Beta, numerous increasingly insipid Kitsune compilations – but it says much about tonight’s set that the best response is saved for the band’s older tracks, specifically those plucked from 2008’s ‘In Ghost Colours’. 

Try as they might, the band have struggled to return to the heights of the balls-out disco that became their trademark last decade and while they may (perhaps unfairly) be considered the only band capable of making disco unsexy, it was at least a niche in which they excelled.

Perhaps in an attempt to rid themselves of the tag of their noughties self, ‘Zonoscope’ sees a new mellow, tame introspection from the band; something which, when played live, sits uncomfortably beside their most dancefloor-oriented material – ‘Hanging Onto Every Heartbeat’ kills the mood entirely, calm and inoffensive as it is, while set opener ‘Take Me Over’ is far too close to Men At Work’s ‘Down Under’ to be taken seriously. 

What they’ve forgotten – and what so many bands do, when convinced that changing course is the only way to stay successful – is that the reason they’ve weathered the storm in the first place is because of the quality of their first two albums. And in leaning so heavily on the slower tracks from ‘Zonoscope’ – and leaving out album highlight ‘Sun God’ altogether – the set drags on too many occasions.

On the whole, it’s a pleasant enough set – Ben Browning’s deft bass lines power everything with restraint and subtlety, while Dan Whitford can’t be faulted as an earnest and watchable frontman. But something doesn’t seem right: the band seem passive, pedestrian almost. And even after the rousing likes of 'So Haunted' and 'Lights And Music', it’s that that sticks in your mind after the stage has been vacated.

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