Cut Copy

Add Date: February 8 

Artist: Cut Copy 

Album: Zonoscope 

Label: Modular 

Genre: Electropop, dance rock 

Comments: Melbourne synth pop giants Cut Copy return with Zonoscope, their third LP and the much-anticipated followup to 2008 breakthrough In Ghost Colours. Fusing decades of electronic and dance influences--from '70s disco to '80s New Wave to the sublime dance-pop of Daft Punk--Cut Copy are, without doubt, one of the best electronic pop bands around these days.

While there are plenty of dance-rock anthems to be found here--in particular, the record's opening tracks, "Need You Know" and "Take Me Over"--Zonoscope proves that the quartet has no interest in resting on their laurels. From the promoter: "A melting pot of ideas streaming from a collective of music fanatics, the album embraces new combinations that span a rhythm section on motorik overdrive ('Alisa'), the reincarnation of Chicago's raw house pioneers producing EBM deep in the wilderness ('Pharaohs & Pyramids' and 'Blink and You'll Miss a Revolution') and the epic 15-minute closing minimal disco mantra ('Sun God'). Seamlessly bridged together by a series of ambient hallucinatory miniatures, the percussion-drenched celebrations are lively awakenings."

If I may say so about two albums in the same week, Zonoscope is one of the best records of 2011. Don't be left behind.