SINGLE REVIEW: ALEX METRIC

ARTIST: ALEX METRIC
TITLE: IT STARTS EP
LABEL: Marine Parade
FORMAT: CD
RELEASED: digital November 30 / physical January 18

After putting his name on the house music map with remixes for U2, Bloc Party and Phoenix in 2009, Alex Metric rounds off the year with a versatile EP destined for pop crossover and underground DJ support alike.

The EP’s title track is a surprisingly perky vocal track, sounding like an amphetamine-boosted New Order on their most commercial form and boasting some truly roasting guitar abuse from Russell Lissack of Bloc Party fame. The hooks are so catchy that remixers.Evil Nine can’t help but retain them for their equally 80s-slanted but beefed up beatswise remix.

But most interesting for more club-orientated DJs will be the two instrumental tracks ‘Discotron’ and the orgasmic ‘Gusto’, the latter of which has been proving the climax to most of Metric’s set this year. Similarly retro nods to New Order, Depeche Mode and other 80s synthpop greats make the chances of a thumbs up from Spikyben considerably more likely, provided of course they’re dragged up to date with new skool 00s beats like this, of course. Something for everyone, then, and a big indication that Metric is a serious contender for a big breakthrough in 2010.
4/5