Copy

Last year, Copy, the alias of Portland, Oregon’s Marius Libman, proved that geography isn’t everything. Because while Europe once monopolized the modern electro-house sound, Portland now lays claim to its own innovator who has taken the genre to new and unexpected places. Copy’s debut, Mobius Beard, displayed a knack for melding headphone-friendly synthpop with floor shaking dance music. After a year-long string of legendary, sweat-soaked live sets that inevitably erupted into epic dance parties, Copy was voted “Best New Band” by the Willamette Week, solidifying his place as a rising star within the local music scene. The album received praise from the likes of The Fader, XLR8R, and BPM Magazine.

A product of the 80's, video game music featured heavily in Libman’s musical development, as did his father's favorite albums, Pet Sounds and Kind of Blue. At age 13 he started playing in punk bands, moving through math rock and improv metal before discovering electronic music, which in turn led to the jazz fusion of Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis. In the midst of this musical amalgamation, Libman developed a parallel obsession with the deceptively simple sounds of studio pop, Italo disco, hip-hop, and electro, which soon found him dropping excellent party sets under the alias DJ Copy. Meanwhile countless hours were spent honing his production craft, mingling the lush pop of Tears for Fears, OMD, Dr. Dre, Yaz, Pinback and Giorgio Moroder with the musical intricacy of Aphex Twin and Coltrane. It’s this balance that informs Copy’s debut: get lost in melodic contemplation or bounce, pump a fist, and strain your neck to the beat – Mobius Beard does both.