MOUNT KIMBIE
Koko, London | November 14th
By the time London-born Mount Kimbie complete their touring duties, on February 8th Down Under in Perth, they will have been on the road for 10 solid months – a wearying stretch for most, but not for this post-dubstep duo.
While the pioneers’ popularity is unquestioned, the most exciting part for their many fans is the way in which their experiences on tour will further enrich and mature their future sound. The pair’s growth is best seen in the live arena, as evidenced when they dropped in on Koko last week in the city where it all began.
No tired showing here, on a Thursday night in Mornington Crescent. Rather, when the plugs were annoyingly pulled at just past 11pm the party had hit another level, leaving those hanging off the vertiginous staircases in the packed-out, beautifully dilapidating theatre aching for yet more.
Kai Campos and Dominic Maker may be peddling their second album, Cold Spring Fault Less Youth, but what elements from their global gambol will help shape their third full-length release? Indeed, the genesis of their very name, Mount Kimbie, is a nod to both their diverse influences and open-minded sonic sensibilities: it’s a fusion of Mount Eerie – the last album by American lo-fi rockers The Microphones before the name was adopted by the entire project – and British folk hero Nick Drake’s track Kimbie (“Kimbie wants a $9 show … Kimbie let your hair hang down”).
Following the sublime down-tempo debut Crooks and Lovers, Mount Kimbie toured for almost 24 months before penning their next work. They allowed it to evolve, and by the time it was released in March the musical world was ready to bow down once more.
“It’s quite a bit bigger sounding than what we’ve done before,” Maker said in an interview about Cold Spring Fault Less Youth earlier this year. “I think it’s still quite delicate material, but it has a bigger sound compared to the last album, and I think that must be informed really greatly by what we’ve spent the last two years doing: playing live.”
Kampos added: “We started off trying to imitate other stuff, and we failed. But in failing to do that, we stumbled across a sound that’s inherently our own.” And that’s why they have garnered supporters planet-wide, who know that to really get the most out of Mount Kimbie you have to see them up close, in the flesh.
At a sold-out Koko, following warming sets by DJ Jon Rust and Forest Swords, the pair took to the stage for an intense 90-minute performance. And as testament to their multifarious appeal and attraction, young and old head-nodded side by side – as ganja fumes wafted from the pit upwards – in appreciation of their sound, which is a notch or two above the studio version. There is an elevated vibrancy, immediacy and rawness – it’s quite something to behold.
So involved in the show, so caught up in the moment, Maker only had time to speak twice. Firstly, four tracks in, to say, with a playful incredulous naivety: “Fuck me. Look at that: there’s a lot of people in the auditorium!” Then, before their encore, he beamed: “You are amazing.”
As the duo – and an impressive performer on the drums, who appeared mid-way through the opening offering – bobbed from one song off their latest album to the next, occasionally switching synth and twiddlers for guitar expertly, the crowd nodded with them. But we were all silently wondering whether King Krule, the teenage vocal sensation who features twice on Cold Spring Fault Less Youth, might appear from behind the curtain at some point.
And yes, was the answer. About half-way through the set the 19-year-old, christened Archie Marshall, flung back the drapery, bounded in to the limelight and blew us away with a venomous You Took Your Time.
It moved the already booming gig up a gear, and after the musical monarch departed another level was reached when the album’s anthem, Made To Stray, was belted out. It really was tremendous to watch, and as the pair continued to bump up the BPM, almost teasingly, it was such a selfish disappointment when they bade farewell.
The frustrated revellers, with their Mount Kimbie fix yanked from them, can take solace in the fact that when the boys are back in Blighty next spring they will start inking their third album. Weariness: a word neither this talented couple nor their army of supporters can relate to, thankfully.
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Words: Oliver Pickup
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