Hair Guitar
Label: Audio Dregs
Length: LP
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: Hair Guitar
Copy’s synth- ridden electro-pop undeniably shares traits with MSTRKRFT’s crazed cuts, but Hair Guitar doesn’t hit as hard as the Canadian duo’s grimy beats do. Behind his simple pseudonym, Portland native Marius Libman has more in common with Nintendo game scores or with analog-hoarding beat-maker Eliot Lipp than he does with his oft-cited dance-party contemporaries, but for the most part, Hair Guitar moves the crowd just the same. Floor rattlers like ‘This Is Promotionalâ?� or ‘Actualâ?� begin with subtly pronounced, crisp synths that touch on ’80s radio pop, but fortunately never get planted there, opting instead for more expansive and gooey multitiered key melodies atop vintage beat-machine rhythms. Closer ‘Closet Faceâ?� is straight, choppy electro-funk that packs dueling digital riffs against its warbling synth bass, while ‘Zipper Problemsâ?� broods before its urgent, swirling augmentation offsets any of the stagnation that bogs down some of these club rockers.
This article appears in Apr 4-10, 2007.