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Having supported Kate Nash, CSS and Justice (amongst others) and remixed songs by the likes of Architecture in Helsinki, Klaxons and Dntel (yes, that’d be the side project from him of Postal Service fame), Metronomy are branching out on their own. Tonight is their first tour stop which just happens to be in the cerebral city they claim to love, but does it love them?
Support tonight comes courtesy of Oxford’s very own, 100 Bullets Back (proprietors of indie and electro club night, ‘Abort Retry, Fail…?’ to all you cool kids). Their song ‘Give It Up’ appropriates Fischerspooner’s (#1) fast paced signature electro loops but with added Jamie T sounding vocals, which sounds odd - and probably is - a bit; but is nevertheless not a bad attempt for three (supposedly) posh boys from the ‘shire.
Metronomy are effervescent from the offset- the lighting gives Late of the Pier a hazy run for their glow sticks; Donning their standard uniform black tees, circular lights hang lazily from their necklines, adding to the overall light trickery of the titchy venue. 'Heartbreaker’ is quite brilliant; off key clappage and lusty beats tickling what should now be your electro infused vertebrae. The electro samba of ‘Radio Land’ has most of the audience transfixed as a sea of flailing arms and hips sways. If your body is not pulsating to this, then you’re a far lesser mortal than me.
The set can be a bit hit and miss. Their more recent, poppier efforts are far better received than their earlier, instrumentally heavy, works such as ‘Black Eye, Burnt Thumb’. We’d like to position Metronomy in the same vein as LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, Simian Mobile Disco, Late of the Pier and the Whip but there’s a vast range of influences that enables their music to be more widely received than the above gives them credit for; making them as popular with the techno crowd as with the indie disco dancers amongst us. Like their contemporaries, Metronomy have obviously drawn influences from nineties French house music (Hello Cassius) and even (to an extent) German techno; it’s not so different from what has come before but is certainly adding something new and distinct to the burgeoning genre.
Metronomy’s outlandish quirkiness, donning uniforms and performing air steward type hand gestures at various intervals throughout their songs (not at all 'Steps' like. Thank God!), alongside obvious musical brilliance make them top of this music writer’s one to watch list. Bigger than Justice…? Right this moment, they deserve to be. The crowd here love ‘em.
