Crack

On a recent foray to London, Crack had the distinct pleasure of sharing ear space with some of the most forward thinking producers in the game today.

The innovative production of Darkstar, the hybrid two-step of Joy Orbison and the congo rolls and exotics of Julio Bashmore made the gig at Big Chill House a watermark stamp of quality on the brilliant state of British production.

The other act on the bill grabbing all kinds of hype with both hands is London/Brighton duo Mount Kimbie. While Orbison and Bashmore (both firmly plotting a course through British electronic music at the moment) played out supreme DJ sets, Mount Kimbie’s performance stood out, not least because it was all done on an array of complicated looking equipment set up on a rather rickety table to the right of the DJ booth.

Dom Maker and Kai Campos are both 24 and met at university in London. Like so many producers currently gracing the British music scene, they are products of the post-superstar DJ generation. Theirs is not an era in which being an electronic musician costs the earth and you risk being stigmatised as a Pet Shop Boy. The furthering of technology, coupled with a society that places technological understanding as a life skill, means innovation in the field of electronic music has reached a level far beyond its primitive beginnings.

The magic of what Mount Kimbie have done is to create a sound when played in your living room can be loosely described as ambient and heady, but when played live and at volume is also perfect for the dance floor. Textured and layered, the bass lines prevalent in their work will no doubt mean they are coined as dubstep by the uneducated.

Having released records on Hotflush, Mount Kimbie are in good hands. In the same vein as Kode 9’s Hyerdub label, Scuba’s Hotflush recordings has become a very hot ticket for DJ’s looking for crossover appeal dub music.

Kai explains: “We were lucky with whole dubstep thing. If there hadn’t been something we had been tagged with, our efforts might have easily slipped by the wayside. Especially with the amount of electronic musicians these days, it can all feel a little bit irrelevant and like your work may get lost in the ether. I think the fact we got signed to a record label relevant to a certain time and place was good for us. Releasing on Hotflush has meant we are quite fortunate in that we’ve got an identity.

It’s obviously a great label and we are really proud to be releasing on it. “The whole industry needs names and genres to sell anything, but it’s always healthy when you’ve got stuff that gets an instant reaction. Luckily it hasn’t gone too far down that road with people calling it Joy-step (after Joy Orbison) or anything like that.”

After breakthrough production Maybes gained them a lot of attention from the scene for it’s jittering, edgy ambience, Mount Kimbie are primed to release their finished debut album Crooks and Lovers in July. As the sound of Maybes rolls out of the Big Chill House and past the long queue down the street, those who are inside are fortunate to see Mount Kimbie working their way around their electronic instruments of choice with precision and knowledge.

Kai explains the origins of the Mount Kimbie live show: “We used to do it with James Blake, as the three of us. It wasn’t like we thought, 'everyone else is DJ’ing let’s do something live'. It just seemed like the natural thing to do. We just make sure nothing is sequenced in fucking Ableton and everything you hear is being played live, so we can figure out ways to change the songs.

“With the three of us it was quite different. Because James is such a good keyboard player, you could give him the body of the song, so it ended up being a bit primitive. When James went off to do his own thing, we ended up going right back to square one and looked at how we should do it. We are getting a really professional style now. The more you do it, the more confident you get I suppose.”

Their increase in notoriety has seen them step out of the UK of late and perform to wider audiences. “The other week we played in Romania in a place called the People’s Palace. It’s this crazy, crazy building. I think it’s the second biggest building in the world. Absolutely bizarre. We also played in a museum in Spain last week too. It’s all well and good doing mad gigs like those, but I prefer playing gigs like we did in The Big Chill House a few weeks back. You feel people getting in to it as they are right on top of you. It was cool to come back from Spain and play The Camden Crawl too.”

Many contemporary producers have found the talents needed to create innovative music are transferable when remixing and re-imaging the works of others. Bolstered by high profile and high quality remixes for the likes of Foals and The XX, Mount Kimbie find themselves in high demand, much to Kai’s surprise.

“You would not believe some of the stuff we get sent that people want us to remix. Not naming any names, but some really awful pop music. I don’t know who is thinking to do this. It’s got to be a thought out decision whether it’s the right thing to do or not. If Britney Spears offered a couple of grand we’d probably do it though.

“With The XX remix, I actually found it a little difficult because I liked the song as it was. If there is something in there that gives me an idea to work on, we can manipulate it for the good of the remix.”

With all the groundwork secured and big radio support coming from the likes of Mary Anne Hobbs and Gilles Peterson, Mount Kimbie are in the best position to put their debut record into the public domain. Their heartfelt heady sound is set to increase pulse rates and rattle bass bins all summer long.


Tune: Maybes

http://www.myspace.com/mountkimbie

Photos: Sophia Spring

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