Two years on and few can decide what new rave actually is. Cynics suggested it was a media concoction, brewed up in the eastern districts of London to add spice to the neon-clad but essentially guitar-based indie of Klaxons. And its plausibility came under further scrutiny after a series of tail-coat-clinging acts served up little more than a botched ironic take on the Shamen's Ebeneezer Goode.
Brighton-based Metronomy, a band placed under the new rave umbrella of late, have a far richer string of influences than that term can do justice to. Metronomy began life as the solo project of producer Joseph Mount. After the eclectic electro-pop of his 2006 debut and a series of remarkable remixes (including a klezmer take on Britney Spears' Toxic) he was forced to recruit two childhood friends for his popular stage act. The resulting spectacle confirms them as one of this year's most intriguing prospects.
They appear with plastic light globes attached to their chests, pounding into Mount's often dark new material only to spring into Ronettes-style dance routines in an occasionally brilliant fusion of Daft Punk hooks and the art-school playfulness of Talking Heads. The futuristic military march of Let's Have a Party, a highly danceable song about empty despair on a club dance floor, veers from melancholy to comedy through bassist Gabriel Stebbing's tight falsetto. There is similar tongue-in-cheek delivery of crushing subject matter on the mutant disco of Heartbreaker, while On the Motorway is a potential hit.
It all makes for perfect pop music. Metronomy should be famous, but whether they are simply too peculiar for that remains to be seen.
· At HiFi Club, Leeds, tonight. Box office: 0113-242 7353. Then touring.
