Metronomy

Metronomy

British producer Joseph Mount has been making piercingly brilliant pop songs as Metronomy since his 2006 debut Pip Paine (Pay The £5000 You Owe). In the three acclaimed albums since, Mount’s solo electronic productions have been bolstered by a growing troupe of musicians, with Metronomy now functioning as slick four piece.

Metronomy’s debut album Pip Paine (Pay The £5000 You Owe) was primed with chirpy, distinctive electronic pop cuts like “Peter’s Pan” and “1 String String”, but it wasn’t until 2008’s Nights Out That Mount would hone his hooks down to their most potently infectious. “Radio Ladio”, “Holiday”, and “On The Motorway” were as weighty as they were funky, and showed Nights Out to be a disco-pop album of rare depth and quality. Throughout the period, Metronomy had brought Mount’s electronic productions to life in a three person light show, and on 2011’s The English Riviera and 2014’s Love Letters, this would become the outfit’s recording set-up too. Metronomy’s third and fourth albums re-imagined the funk-driven machine music of Mount’s earlier work within a four piece band framework, and contained some of the group’s most treasured singles, with “The Look” and “Love Letters” ludicrously catchy highlights.

Though Mount’s four albums are a sizable legacy in themselves, his substantial body of remix work is no less impressive. Metronomy’s string of memorable reworks of pop royalty include a thumping take on Gorillaz’ 2006 cut “El Manana”, a Cher-meets-dubstep mangling of Lady Gaga’s “You And I” in 2011, and a wonderfully camp version of Roots Manuva’s 2005 track “Awfully Deep”. Mount’s remixes have equally gained a reputation in indie circles, with Scottish art rockers Franz Ferdinand, ‘new rave’ hipsters Klaxons, and indie starlet Kate Nash all receiving the Metronomy treatment at some point during their careers. Perhaps Metronomy’s finest remix moment is his take on Goldfrapp’s “Happiness” which liberally applies sultry French vocal samples and bombastic synth lines to the track, embodying its eccentric spirit whilst leaving only a trace of its original instrumentation.