As dirty bass lines vibrate across the darkened room and flashes of lights hit against a disco ball, illuminating faces for brief flickers at a time, the dance floor becomes a number of things; an escape from reality, a community like no other, a place to self destruct and then piece yourself back together. A celebration of everything that can happen on a night out in a club or a weekend at a music festival, The Cope’s eponymous debut strives to get you dancing as you make up for lost time.
The Cope are Dublin electronic producers David Anthony Curley and Joe Furlong - the pair have been crafting their sound since meeting at an impromptu karaoke party in late 2019. Frantically YouTubing songs like Work It by Marie Davidson, Never Come Back by Caribou and Intergalactic by Beastie Boys, their karaoke party turned into a dance party as songs from The Blaze, Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers, Soulwax, Rüfüs du Sol and Justice were added to the mix. Bonding over 90s dance classics and French house music, they quickly set to work on what would become their debut self-titled album. A collection of vignettes that reflect the range of experiences and emotions that one might have dancing in a nightclub, this album is an emotional reverie of human connection. With musical backgroundsin indie, alternative and guitar music, Curley and Furlong have always had a love for dance music and as their social lives become more entwined, dance music is at the very heart of it. “In late 2019, as we first started hanging out and David was putting his studio together, we naturally gravitated to the instruments and gear he had collected,” explains Furlong, praising Curley’s vast analog synth and drum machine collection. “All music can resonate on a deeply emotional level but I feel like dance music has a far more potent way of reaching those moments. Initially we just wanted to make music that we would want to listen to and if that were to resonate with other people then that would be a bonus, really all we want to do is make people dance.” With singers like Shiv, Sorcha Richardson and Ciara O’Connor (Dua Lipa) on board, the album takes us on a journey of love, heartbreak and ecstasy. Capturing the therapeutic element of a night out in a club surrounded by people, each song is a snapshot into that shared chaos and alchemy. True Romance and I Am Stretched On Your Grave are moments of collective ecstasy; the sensation of being in a disparate crowd of people but feeling like you’re going through the same unifying motions. Lonely, Louder and Revolution 636 both embrace the empowerment of dancing by yourself, knowing that all you need is the music to make you content in that moment. Stepping into the darker moments that taint nightlife, Passed Out and Forever Me hone in on the loss of control that comes with overindulgence and the social anxieties that limit us.
The last 2 years have seen us starved of dancing and human connection. Creating this album throughout 2020 and 2021 was a way for Curley and Furlong to tap into the feeling of collective catharsis when they couldn’t see their friends. “If this album can facilitate people reconnecting with those moments then our job is done,” says Furlong. “All we want to do is make people dance.” Recorded and produced by the duo at The Clinic Recording Studios, Curley’s recently opened studio in Dublin 3, and mixed by James Eager, The Cope’s debut album is perfectly placed to soundtrack the dancefloors of 2022 and beyond.
