Posted by Budgie at May 10, 2005 05:00 PM

Pipe #25 / 1 Year Older But None The Wiser...

I just realised today that The Pipe has been going for a year and has racked up 25 entries. Not bad at all, I suppose.

Back to the matter at hand though, todays tunes...

During the recent wasteland time of December and April, when The Pipe was in hibernation, there really were only two tracks, by two bands, that I wanted to post. They appear today as a comment made by Spoilt Victorian Child, within his latest entry on his Blog, has prompted me to get off my backside and put them up for you.

He, and quite rightly so, claimed, "it seems the whole world has gone New Order crazy".

It's true. The name New Order seems to be unavoidable just now. Ok, New Order have a new album out and they have just been honoured with a "Godlike Genuis" award by The NME, but the same magazine is keeping this current New Order buzz alive by basically, and lazily, comparing any new band coming up that plays guitars and uses synths to the Manchester legends. I mean do The Killers, The Bravery and Bloc Party sound remotely like New Order? I don't think so.

The reason I'm putting the following two tracks up is that although they don't really sound like the band New Order, they both have a spirit and energy about them that Sumner, Hooky and Morris would all recognise and acknowledge.

Track : CUT COPY - "FUTURE"

Cut Copy started off as a solo project for Melbourne's Dan Whitford. Alas it was short lived, as at an early gig his sampler broke. Not wanting that to happen again, he recruited some mates to form the band properly and together they have recorded one of this years great pop albums, "Bright Like Neon Love".

They have pulled off the feat of being able to record an album that sounds like it has been beamed in from the mid eighties, Dan claims he wanted his songs to be simple but given a big eighties, airbrushed feel to them. So with the aid of famous French dance producer, Philippe Zdar (Cassius, Motorbass, La Funk Mob), "Bright Like Neon Love" more than achieves their goal.

You may be familiar with their forthcoming single, "Saturdays", which is already being tipped to be a big summer record, what with it slightly echoeing that summer classic from a few years back "Music Sounds Better With You" by Stardust.

"Future" though is different, although it is filled with electronic hooks and can be uplifting in places, it is the melancholy that drifts through it that grabbed my attantion. It's this that I feel is THE New Order spirit in the song and it's captured here better than some of the bands mentioned above.

I highly recommend the album as there are many more moments like this within it, and anyone who has scribblings of Giorgio Moroder, ELO, Guided By Voices and The KLF within their CD packaging has got to be good in my book.

Track : OUT HUD - "ONE LIFE TO LEAVE"

Out Hud to me sound like ESG playing Tom Tom Club songs that have been remixed by New Order. Influenced by Post Punk, House and Dub these part time members of fellow American indie dance band !!! (chk chk chk) make a right, tight, dance racket.

"One Life To Leave", from their current and second album "Let Us Never Speak Of It Again", starts off all funky, post punk New York style bass and drums with jaggy female vocals puncturing the groove, but then after a couple of minutes it melts into something that wouldn't sound out of place on New Order's classic "Technique" album. I mean, the original groove of the song is enough to have your head nodding, but it's when the electronics come in and add new rhythms and warmth to the whole affair that you wish you were hearing this in a club and not through your PC speakers.

The spirit of New Order, for me, on their album is that even though it's very polished and can sound like late 80's New Order, and other people too, in places, it's in the adventure of the experimentation that Out Hud are up to that reminds me of those great early 80's New Order dance excursions.

Go Visit : Cut Copy
Go Visit : Out Hud

Go Buy : Cut Copy - Bright Like Neon Love
Go Buy : Out Hud - Let Us Never Speak Of It Again

Feel free to leave a comment about these tracks in The Pipe section of the forum

Ta,
Budgie.