Alex Metric - It Starts

There’s a lot of chaff out there since the indie electro explosion of the mid-noughties, and if anyone is correctly placed to rise above the rest, it’s Alex Metric, the DJ and current Radio 1 show presenter who’s remixed stalwarts of the genre like Phoenix and Bloc Party.

The EP begins with the promising ‘It Starts’, the only track to feature Metric’s vocals and the standout of the record. The track, kinetic and jittery, is irresistibly danceable. It comes as no surprise that the track features Bloc Party guitarist Russell Lissack; the staccato, aggressive guitar line is classic Bloc Party. Though the lyrics are nothing to write home about, tackling the ever-trendy subject of ennui, the vocals add texture to what is already a stomping indie club track.

In contrast, the second and third tracks on the EP feel like filler. With a title like ‘Discotron’, you’d expect seriously disco-influenced dance music; instead, synths and bass are deployed to create a track that you can imagine hearing through a drunken haze at a club, but not remembering that you heard it the next day. ‘Gusto’, with a manipulated three-note synth riff at the center of the proceedings, gets more appealingly filthy as it goes on, but could benefit by going even further: think the obscenity of a good Bloody Beetroots remix.

The EP ends with a remix of ‘It Starts’ by Metric’s labelmates Evil Nine. It fails to do any justice to the original, turning it into a sparsely inhabited disco track that runs nearly double the original’s length. Lissack’s guitar line, one of the most memorable parts of the original track, disappears completely, replaced by vamping synths and cowbell. Which is unfortunate - if the rest of the EP lived up to the potential that ‘It Starts’ shows, Metric would have scored himself a collection of songs that would be inescapable come weekend nights.