Joseph Mount is an amiable, unpretentious bloke, like a young construction worker with a twinkle in his eye and unexpectedly delicate skills.

Shambolically dressed in ill-fitting jeans and a black T-shirt, he exposed his builder's crack to the crowd waiting for his performance at The Freebutt as he bent over to set up his toy Yahama keyboard, but he wasn't in the least concerned.

Metronomy, Joseph's band, are similarly humorous, good-natured and unaffected. On bass was Gabriel, lead singer of Brighton's melancholic country-folk band The Customers, for whom Joseph also drums.

Completing the line-up was Oscar Cash on keyboards, melodica and occasional abstract saxophone.

Evidently influenced by both Kraftwerk's sound and their robot dummies, the band's performance displayed an ironic, kitsch dimension to accompany Mount's upbeat, unshamedly lo-fi electronic tunes.

Each of the three musicians had a cheap, battery-powered lamp stuck to their T-shirts, which they punched in rhythm to the music, turning them on and off. Synchronized guitar movements ensued, with the band dancing like The Shadows but sounding like Gary Numan playing Bavarian oompah tunes.

Playing all the songs from his You Could Easily Have Me EP, Mount showed why the likes of Franz Ferdinand were attracted to his direct, artfully comic musicality and employed his skills as a remixer.

"We're just keeping your spirits up," he said with a smile. Switching between instruments, all the band's members displayed their skills, but Metronomy is Mount's project, initially conceived and recorded on his old PC. The music's increasing success seems to be eclipsing that of The Customers, whose bittersweet, lyrical songs have not yet brought Mount and Gabriel the wider attention they deserve.

Metronomy's music is in some ways its polar opposite, but no less enjoyable.