Zonoscope, the highly anticipated third long-player from epic/atmospheric Australian synth-rockers Cut Copy, comes out tomorrow; today, Pitchfork tags it as Best New Music, having previously done the same for the album’s first track, “Need You Now,” which has been making its rounds on the internet and alternative radio. (KEXP’s John Richards played it two mornings in a row last week.)
It’s a pretty great song, all streamlined tension and swoony catharsis. But a good deal of the song’s appeal comes from something nobody—not KEXP’s DJs, not Stereogum’s commenters or SoundCloud’s annotators, not Pitchfork’s Joe Colly or Tom Breihan—seems to have noticed (or, anyway, seen fit to mention). Here’s the song:
And, after the jump, here’s “Your Silent Face,” Side 2 Track 1 from New Order’s Power, Corruption & Lies:
You hear it, right? That full, not quite glitchy circular backbeat? It’s good to know that Cut Copy is familiar with the classics of the genre.
I find it genuinely odd that no one seems to have mentioned this yet, given the near-universal veneration of Power, Corruption & Lies—although, granted, the best thing about New Order songs is their almost cosmic familiarity, so it’s possible to see how that lift could go unplaced.
Still, the last time a high-profile indie rock act riffed on a New Order classic, people picked up on it.