Melbourne, Australia group Cut Copy take many of their cues from contemporaries like Air, Daft Punk, and LCD Soundsystem, but with a distinctly pop sensibility that draws on classic AM radio pop singles from the 1970s and '80s, with elements of vintage disco and synth pop that appeal to song-based listeners as well as to club kidz. Cut Copy started in 2001 as a solo project by songwriter, producer, and DJ Dan Whitford, who released the single 1981 and the EP I Thought of Numbers before drafting in other members to fill out his synth- and sample-based sound.nn Bassist and guitarist Tim Hoey and drummer Mitchell Scott debuted on Cut Copy's first full-length album, Bright Like Neon Love, released in the summer of 2004. After several successful singles were spun off the album (including Saturdays, Future, and Going Nowhere), Universal's Island Records imprint picked up the trio's international distribution in 2006. Following an inventive Whitford live DJ mix that was released in 2006 as Fabriclive.29 (including such unexpected delights as Ciccone Youth's noisy deconstruction "Into the Groove[y]" and Roxy Music's suave "Angel Eyes" alongside the usual Goldfrapp and Soulwax), the band proper returned in early 2007 with a new single, Hearts on Fire. Cut Copy's second album, In Ghost Colours, debuted at the top of Australia's ARIA charts in 2008 and was placed on a number of publications' year-end lists.nn After adding a fourth member, bassist Ben Browning, the group released its third album, Zonoscope, in 2011 and following a tour, then a brief hiatus, the band hit the studio again to record its fourth album. Inspired heavily by late-'80s/early-'90s dance music (from acid house to Black Box), Free Your Mind was released in late 2013 by Modular and new American label Loma Vista. The record was innovatively promoted with pre-release listening sessions taking place at six specific worldwide locations for all those with a smartphone in range of the coordinates. The band next hit the road for a lengthy world tour, then spent the summer of 2014 playing a full slate of festivals. Around this time, Free Your Mind was reissued with five bonus tracks added.nn While Cut Copy were recording their next album at studios in their home country as well as in Copenhagen, Washington, D.C., New York, and Atlanta during most of 2015, they took a short break to record an album of ambient instrumentals titled January Tape, which was issued on cassette in late 2016. When album number five, Haiku from Zero, was completed, it ended up being the most confident, most straightforward dance-pop album the band had done to date. It was released by Astralwerks in late 2017. ~ Stewart Mason & Tim Sendra