Review: "Here's two tracks we've been sitting on from a few years ago that didn't feel quite right for the 'Love What Survives' album," write Dom and Kai from Mount Kimbie. With an overt analogue signal mixed with acoustic recordings and colourful blend of infectious influences like shoegaze, minimal, indie, post-punk and electronica - both tracks offer some kind of Ryuichi Sakamoto vibe ("Bamboo Houses" let's say) with a touch of Madchester-influences and 4th World music. "Black Stone" delves into a sound that inspires memories of acts like Forest Swords through its gritty melancholic element - with "Blue Liquid" adding a touch of surfer rock that's enough to have you look up bands like King Krule ("Dumb Surfer"), Corners ("Caught In Frustration") or Allah-Las ("Catamaran") - happy days.
Mount Kimbie - "You Look Certain (I'm Not So Sure)" (feat Andrea Balency - WXAXRXP Session) - (5:34) 71 BPM
Oneohtrix Point Never - "Toys 2" (KCRW Session) - (6:51) 110 BPM
Plaid - "Elide" (Peel Session) - (4:31) 67 BPM
Seefeel - "Vex" (Peel Session) - (4:27) 64 BPM
Review: For all you folks out there in radio land Warp Records is on the air with this WXAXRXP compilation pulling together an assortment of Warp artists playing Warp music on the radio. Whether it be earlier John Peel sessions or this June's WXAXRXP x NTS weekender, the tracks here provide a digital taster of what's inside a huge 10x12" boxset - designed by Michael Oswell with photography by Synchrodogs (maybe that means something to some of you). The essential who's who of Warp artists make their way to this digital compilation, with LFO signing in for a trippy piece of bleep funk alongside something mahogany and soulful from Flying Lotus, with classic strands of BOC melancholia not failing to miss out. Mount Kimbie's recent "You Look Certain (I'm Not So Sure)" feat Andrea Balency at this year's WXAXRXP Session is a highlight also next to Seelfeel's "Vex" recorded for a Peel Session back in the day.
Review: Following on from the recent 2.1 compilation, Hotflush again shows why it is such an essential dance floor label. It features established artists like Agoria, who drops the discordant tones and spiky minimalism of "Helice" and Recondit with the deep, dubbed out "Channel" , alongside emerging producers like Glaskin with the twisted acid of "You Are Simply A Machine". No Hotflush compilation would be complete without its owner Scuba's input; here it takes various forms, including a broken beat remix of "Ruptured" by Surgeon, and the SCB sub-project dropping the sub-bass led "Rope". If that wasn't reason enough to buy Floor 2.2, there is also a fine techno track from the late, great Trevino.
Various - "DJ-Kicks" (Continous mix) - (49:34) 133 BPM
Review: When they were asked to put together the latest volume in the "DJ Kicks" series, Mount Kimbie boys Dominic Maker and Kai Campos drew influence from a recent six-date run supporting Actress. As a result, the 22 tracks they have chosen - here presented in DJ friendly, unmixed form - tend towards the experimental and off-kilter, touching on a myriad of styles (ambient, industrial-era experimentalism, South American influenced tropical drum jams, spacey modular techno, raw-edged peak-time jams, mind-altering acid weirdness and intergalactic electro all feature) in the process. Highlights are naturally plentiful, from the hypnotic dancefloor intensity of Stanislav Tolkachev and bleeping body-jack of A Sagittariun, to the skewed warmth of Severed Heads and the dream-like weirdness of their own exclusive contribution, "Southgate".
Review: The second set of remixes from Mount Kimbie's album pick up where the first volume left off. Like Nina Kraviz' remixes, Marfcel Dettmann's take on "Four Years & One Day" is a dense, filtered techno workout, which revolves around a relentless, stepping rhythm. The mood changes with Gerd Janson's take on the same track; the Running Back boss opts for a slower house tempo, with crisp drums underpinning a murky, new wave style bass that is covered in tantalising acid lines. It's the most imaginative remix to feature across both releases and is in contrast to the Ellen Allien reshapes: on the U.F.O. remix of "T.A.M.E.D", the Bpitch boss drops a pulsating, menacing techno groove, while her 'Berlin' take on the same track is an even more malevolent, electro-techno workout.
Review: Hot on the heels of their recent acclaimed recent album, Love What Survives, Mount Kimbie get the remix treatment from some of underground electronic music's most respected producers. On this first instalment, Trip boss Nina Kraviz gets to grips with "Blue Train Lines". On the main mix, she loops a snippet of King Krule's original vocal over a heads-down rhythm track. Kraviz sounds like she was inspired by the modern purism of labels like Frozen Border and Horizontal Ground, and while the Russian producer's two dense looped remixes on the flip side, it's this stern but funky interoperation that really stands out.
Blue Train Lines (Nina Kraviz main mix) - (8:06) 136 BPM
Review: "Blue Train..." is a taster for Mount Kimbie's third album, Love What Survives, and sees the production pair make the move into angst ridden electronic pop. Teaming up with singer King Krule, Mount Kimbie put down layer upon layer on white noise and drones as a back drop for the UK singer's howling, haunting vocals. Followed by rolling break beats and humming guitars, it's exactly the kind of track that will win them a while new fan base in the live music scene. Despite King Krule's claim that "I mighta seen it all", rest assured that thanks to Blue Train Lines, most of Mount Kimbie's highlights lay ahead of them.
Review: Taken from the recording sessions of Love What Survives, the trio's 2017 album, Mount Kimbie return to Warp with the sounds of "Turtle Neck Man", and this is a delightful bit of news to hear at the tail-end of a cold February week. The London outfit's sounds are still as relevant as they were back when they first appeared in 2010, as they have a knack for always reinventing themselves. The tune in question is a stunner, bouncing its off-kilter rhythms to slices of pensive spoken word from the streets, making this an instant UK classic. Surely a winner to all sorts of electronic aficionados. Recommended!
Review: Since first emerging on Hotflush at the tail end of the last decade, Mount Kimbie has navigated the post-dubstep landscape better than almost any other act. It says something about their transformation into hard-to-define electronica heavyweights that Love What Survives, their third full-length and second for Warp manages to be both surprising (there are subtle nods towards titans of post-punk pop and rock, for starters) and exactly what you'd expect. They're masters of fusing disparate styles, sounds, textures and beat patterns into beautiful hybrid shapes, and this kind of 21st century fusion is evident throughout. Naturally, there are a few notable guest appearances dotted throughout, with James Blake's two contributions amongst the album's many highlights.
Review: The first compilation on Koze's Pampa label is a lovingly curated affair. It starts with the left field house of Herbert's take on Lianne La Havas and Ada's r&b-infused "You & Me", as well as DJ Koze's own hymnal take on Roman Flugel's "9 Years". Other Pampa regulars like Axel Boman are well represented and he provides the ultra-mellow "In The Dust of This Planet". Equally though, Koze also provides a platform for newcomers to the fold. There's the utterly bizarre, glitch-hop of Nasrawi and Funskstorung's contributions, and at the other end of the spectrum, wide-eyed deep house from Mount Kimbie and Jamie xx & Kosi Kos' pumping indie-dance "Come We Go".
Review: Remix compilations can be a little hit-and-miss, but this one - gathering together five years of eccentric and often inspired reinterpretations from German veteran DJ Koze - is anything but. Koze often saves his best work for the remix domain, delivering imaginative reworks that take the original material into surprising new places. So, Herbert's "If Only" is turned into a sparse chunk of atmosphere-rich late night deep house, Caribou's "Found Out" is blessed with a new sense of wonky, left-of-centre purpose, and Zwanie Johnson's "Golden Song" is given a decidedly Balearic, beatless makeover. Highlights are plentiful, with Koze's dubby, low-slung afro-jazz reinterpretation of Soap & Skin's "Marche Funebre" standing out.
Crazy P - "Clouds" (Outboxx remix) - (6:17) 120 BPM
James Fox - "Holding On" (feat Vanity Jay - NYC mix) - (5:57) 120 BPM
Tempelhof - "Drake" (Future Disco edit) - (6:21) 83 BPM
ADA - "Maps" (Michael Mayer & Tobias Thomas remix) - (8:54) 125 BPM
Downtown Party Network - "Space Me Out" (feat Egle Sirvydyte - Mario Basanov remix) - (8:18) 120 BPM
Clockwork - "Lost Keys" (feat Tale Of Us) - (5:02) 120 BPM
Various Artists - "Future Disco - 'Til The Lights Come Up" (continuous mix) - (1:02:58) 121 BPM
Review: How many long-running compilation series are still going in this day and age? Ok, well respected ones then. Sean Brosnan's Future Disco series has always delivered the goods and can always be used as a benchmark for where the nu-disco world is at any one time. This time, it's (perhaps unsurprisingly) all about the vintage house vibes so not so disco then, but still a thrilling listen. Highlights include the slinky DJ T-esque "You're The One", the ever-brilliant DJ Koze's remix of hot newcomers Mount Kimble and the deeply enchanting Axel Boman remix of "Naughty".
Review: Off the back of their blossoming indie-electronica sophomore LP Cold Spring Fault Less Youth, Mount Kimbie undergo the remix treatment from three well-equipped and idiosyncratic artists. First up Kyle Hall brings the Detroit grit but balances it with his sensitivity towards UK concerns for an uptempo version of "You Took Your Time". DJ Koze brings a more tender kind of 4/4 full of esoteric melodic flourishes and the stark original vocal on "Made To Stray", and Lee Gamble rips it all up with his own aquatic blur of "You Took Your Time" that lets the drums fall muddily and the synths strain against a wall of sonic fluff, with fantastic end results.
Review: Following up the runaway success of Crooks & Lovers was always going to be a daunting task for Mount Kimbie, and they've wisely taken their time to come back with a step forwards from a sound which gave rise to the more folky strains of the dubstep aftermath. Sounding fresh and invigorated on their LP for Warp, Kai Campos and Dominic Maker have built on their love of shoegaze indie and brought their component parts into a clearer vision where they used to hide them behind heavy editing and microsampling. There are plenty of reminders that this is a Kimbie record, not least in the winsome melodies that shape the LP, but the duo have succeeded in shearing away their self-conscious trickery to write full-bodied songs that hit on first listen, rather than ten spins down the line.
