Milburn

play Manchester Academy on September 26th

and Nottingham Rescue Rooms on

September 24th

Nottingham Rescue Rooms

01/06/09

I raise my hands here; i’ve heard of Metronomy for a while now, but only in name. I’d known of their remixes for acts like CSS, Goldfrapp and Kate Nash, but had yet to sample their own music. After a little research into their music (via a quick blast over to their MySpace page), what better way than to jump in at the deep end and experience their music fully, than to catch a live show of theirs.

Having read up a little on the band, and their ‘light shows’, I was expecting some kind of visual feast, but then again, being what the Rescue Rooms is (not much room in fact), I wasn’t expecting a visual feast from such a small venue. In fact, on arriving, I wasn’t expecting much at all, with just a handful of stragglers littered around the venue. A quick pint later to relieve boredom, tonight’s support act is provided by Your Twenties, who make their way quietly onstage. Headed up by ex-Metronomy Gabriel Stebbing, Your Twenties combine a 70s-styled mix of French electro and surf songs, much like a muted Air. Unfortunately they don’t really capture my attention much, less the audience’s own, and with half an hour quickly passing by, just a few obliged audience claps is the best they can muster.

Metronomy though are a different kettle altogether. Timidly making their way onstage, founding members Joseph and Oscar are now accompanied onstage by new members Gbenga Adelekan on Bass Guitar and ex-Lightspeed Champion Drummer Anna Prior on drums and percussion. It has to be said though that with the addition of a live drummer compared to the sequenced patterns as heard on their albums is refreshing, creating a whole new sound and gives them much more stage presence than what may have been before with just the original 3 members.

70s/80s-style electronic/avant garde ‘art’ music combined with a modern twist is what you get with Metronomy; heavy on the synced and improvised synthesizers and melodies, light on the lyrics and vocals for the majority of their setlist, crossing the lines of your standard fare pop, rock and electro. Tracks such as ‘Heart Breaker’ and ‘A Thing For Me’ get their airplay, but it’s the instrumentals that get the most amount of raised eyebrows, impressively managing what make what could potentially be ear-splitting synth rackets turn into respectable head-nodding danceable tracks. Oscar Cash’s selective synth noodling and saxophone performance take centre stage to Joseph’s additional keyboards and guitars, and Gbenga’s bouncy basslines propel the night ahead. And as for the aforementioned light show, we are on minimalistic terms tonight, with just the standard fair house lights, and Metronomy’s synchronized ‘chest lights’ making up anything visual.

It has to be said though whether Metronomy is heading in the right direction or not with their Retro sound. They are indeed garnering themselves a seminally decent fan base, but because they appear to be so far afield from your average electro-pop-rock outfits of today, you have to wonder if they will ever manage to escape from the hot, sweaty nightclubs as the novelty act on to something much larger for themselves. They are of course on the right road with their remixes, but that won’t pay the bills forever. I feel they will need to pull something out of the hat with their next album if they are to progress any further commercially. Having said this though, being a fan of electronic music, they have a very high potential and are highly quirky in their originality for the moment. Let’s see you get your music into modern day times for your next album please guys!

Words by Robin Hosgood