MOUNT KIMBIE Vinyl & CDs

Review: Mount Kimbie's The Sunset Violent offers a deeply evocative, unsettling exploration of emotional dissonance. Opening with the single 'Dumb Guitar', the album vividly portrays a couple grappling with their fractured relationship amidst the beauty of a fictional Chinese beach resort. Andrea Balency-Bearn's serene vocals juxtapose against lyrics of personal turmoil, while buzzy synths, discordant pianos and overdriven guitars evoke an atmosphere of tension and heartbreak. Mount Kimbie, led by Dom Maker and Kai Campos, have expanded their lineup, adding Balency-Bearn and Marc Pell, crafting a post-punk sound with corroded guitars and skeletal drums. Their sonic evolution from their earlier work culminates here, drawing from influences like Sonic Youth and The Fall, while frequent collaborator King Krule contributes to the melancholic undercurrent. Recorded in California's surreal Yucca Valley and pressed on translucent petrol blue vinyl, this album mirrors the desolation and hope of the landscape. Tracks like 'Yukka Tree' and 'Fishbrain' dive into themes of isolation and disconnection, balancing dark tones with flashes of light. With The Sunset Violent, Mount Kimbie stretch their horizons, blending post-punk, dub, and indie influences into a compelling emotional journey.

Review: Few bands have sidestepped expectations as cannily as Mount Kimbie. Initially a duo but now expanded into a quartet, the British band has previously excelled in mixing, matching and fusing a wide range of experimental and left of centre electronic music influences. On The Sunset Violet, their first full-length as a quartet, they've shifted sonically once more, leaning into their indie-rock influences on a set recorded in California. The latter aspect - and the impact of being surrounded by sunshine and desert - is reflected in the warmth and haziness of the sound, which draws on the layered vocals and guitars of vintage shoegaze while also reaching for more familiar aspects of the band's previous experimental electronic sounds (for proof, check the ghostly musical vision that is King Krule collaboration 'Boxing').

Review: 10 years old... Depending when you were born, this reissue of Mount Kimbie's benchmark-setting album will either make you feel a little old or open up a whole new musical world. Either way, it's aged incredibly well as the duo took the dubstep essence and reinterpreted it through more of a hip-hop and beatmaker context. Sketches, all conjured up with heavy levels of emotion and textures, Crooks & Lovers still sounds like no other album and hints at some of the more melodic beat work (think Flume) that came a few years later. Highlights include the gentle lollops of 'Would Know', the glitchy dark garage funk of 'Blind Night Errand' the Clark-like dreamy skips and bubbles of 'Ode To Bear' and the overwhelming emotion of 'Maybes'.

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: 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: 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.

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.