While British electronic duo Mount Kimbie may pull from krautrock to post-dubstep and hip-hop, it’s the synthesis of these influences that has produced something aesthetically distinct. In fact, the sonics of Mount Kimbie’s particular electronic landscape are so tightly woven, that you wouldn’t be remiss to forget that the group consists of two individuals in Kai Campos and Dom Maker. It doesn’t help that their solo presence outside of Mount Kimbie is elusive. But even then, Campos, arguably the one who has pushed a solo identity most, seems to circle back to collaboration, his most recent being with English producer Actress. It’s these reasons that make Mount Kimbie’s latest project particularly tantalising. Released under the Mount Kimbie moniker, the four track EP actually consists of music produced individually by Maker and Campos respectively.
The first two tracks on the EP, In your eyes and a deities encore, are essentially companion pieces credited to Maker. The former, a sequel of sorts to last year’s feel away, takes shape as moody hip-hop accented with saxophone licks and excellent guest verses from slowthai and an exuberant Danny Brown. a deities encore takes the route of R&B / soul, the syrupy voice of Liv.e dripping and oozing across Maker’s smooth-as-scotch jazz backdrop. Maker’s tracks harken back to Kimbie circa 2018’s Turtle Neck Man, or the huskier moments on Crooks & Lovers. Campos’s offerings, on the other hand, recall Late Night Errand or Mayor. In fact, 3.5 returns to the big, stylistic swings of Crooks & Lovers more so than any of Mount Kimbie’s recent, shoegaze adjacent work. Campos’s sounds are more jagged and abrasive, the underlying electronic soul that chugs beneath Kimbie’s work in the vein of Sullen Ground. Q actually feels like a descendant of this track in particular, with its half time rattle set against a steadily ticking four on the floor recalling Sullen Ground’s whacking gqom synths. Quartz is a squiggling, writhing mass of polyrhythms and footwork adjacent patterns, rubbery and serpentine in the way of Jlin.
Download and stream MK 3.5 here
3.5 is a beguiling case study into the mechanics of collaboration. In a statement, Mount Kimbie have noted that the EP is essentially “two parts of individual projects that are influenced by two years of working separately in Los Angeles and London,” a setup that they had hinted may have streamlined their process. 3.5 is an un-meshing of the Mount Kimbie formula that subsequently strengthens the whole thing, but more significantly a fascinating subversion of the ‘duo’ approach that both defies and redefines the norm.
Preview MK 3.5 below.
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