Devon’s finest group are a really good choice for the 29th in the Late Night Tales series, as they’ve already moved about quite a bit stylistically in their three albums so far. Vocalist Joseph Mount is the mainstay of Metronomy, and it’s he that chooses this extremely varied and often invigorating selection, bringing together a number of different musical strands. We get the cosmic jazz of the SA-RA Creative Partners, the smoky soul of Tweet and the wiry violin of Dr Octagon’s ‘Blue Flowers’ – all in the first ten minutes. Then we have Metronomy’s own slowly shifting cover of Jean Michel Jarre’s ‘Hypnose’, the clever alternating speeds of Autechre on ‘Fold4,Wrap5’ – and a welcome spin for Two Lone Swordsmen’s ‘You Are…’ So when was the last time you heard Autechre in the same set as The Alan Parsons Project? I’d wager never, but it’s a mark of the quirks that can be found here, with time taken for late night reveries and unexpected blasts of avant garde. In the middle of it all, though, Mount never forgets his listener, taking them on a weird and wonderful tour of the music in his head.
4 out of 5
Reviewed By Ben Hogwood
