Pigeonhole-phobic Joseph Mount and friends sprinkle some sonic extras on their breakthrough record.

As Metronomy work on their sixth album, leader Joseph Mount has taken time out to reflect on the first notable anniversary of the band’s breakthrough record, adding a second disc of unreleased demos, rarities and B-sides.

While the four demos are probably only of interest to real Metronomyphiles, there’s plenty for more recent fans to get excited about – especially the Bedtime Dub version of Holiday, a staple of the band’s live set, which sucks the soul of the original into darker, slower, glitchier territory while doing away with the rest.

But first, listening back to the original is a reminder of Mount’s inventiveness and sense of fun – the schizophrenic, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink glut of rhythmic changes in The End Of You Too, the fizzing, in-the-room energy of Holiday, and the increasingly breathless pace and high-pitched chorus in My Heart Rate Rapid all still satisfy.

Not to mention the pneumatic, neon alt-disco of On The Motorway, the creaky-door-sampling pop synthfest Heartbreaker, or the splodgy synths, splashy drumbeat and shared vocals of frisky, night-out narrative A Thing For Me. All sounding pretty much boxfresh.

Breakbot’s remix of the latter, on the second disc, is almost unrecognisable – the vocals dropped into a lounge-y piano set-up paired with barely-there funk guitar and a skittering, brittle drum track.

Elsewhere on the bonus front, it’s worth checking The Chase, a record-store-only track reminiscent of late-‘80s computer game soundtracks in the best possible way, the tempo inexorably ratcheting up until Player One inevitably comes a cropper.

Also see the T-Rex fuzzed guitar strut powering Our Raid, and former B-side Matthias Gathering, a dark and intriguing workout to soundtrack the post-club comedown as dawn breaks.

Well worth a visit for new and old fans alike.

Rating: 4/5 stars