Copy

Portland-based producer Marius Libman, known professionally as Copy, crafts melodic instrumental electro-pop infused with a playful retro sensibility. He supplements this core approach through irreverent bootleg remixes of mainstream pop tracks and delivers high-energy live sets centered on keytar, performances that have cemented his reputation locally as a reliable party catalyst and earned him Willamette Week’s 2006 Best New Band honor, even as his visibility has stayed largely confined to Oregon. His strict reliance on analog-flavored synthesizers paired with crisp, direct electronic rhythms evokes the straightforward purity of 8-bit computer music, yet the compositions themselves incorporate denser, more harmonically developed layers that weave in rhythmic and stylistic elements from electro-disco, hip-hop, IDM, dubstep, film scoring, and the foundational synth-pop template.

Libman has supplied remixes for other Portland dance outfits such as Starfucker, Truckasauras, and Panther. His closest artistic parallel, however, remains the duo Ratatat, whose work he has also reworked; Ratatat member E*vax (Evan Mast) co-operates the Portland label Audio Dregs, which has issued Copy’s three full-length albums: Mobius Beard in 2006, Hair Guitar in 2007, and Hard Dream in 2010. Under the DJ Copy alias, Libman has additionally circulated multiple unauthorized-remix CD-Rs, including the two-volume Diva mixtape series spotlighting Whitney Houston and Mary J. Blige, the self-titled Bone Thugs-N-Harmony-N-Copy collection that accompanied select copies of Hair Guitar, and the R. Kelly-focused Pied Piper of Electro, distributed gratis with advance orders of Hard Dream. Libman further participates in the groups Astrology, alongside Panther’s Charlie Salas-Humara, and Atole.