Mount Kimbie MK 3.5: Die Cuts / City Planning
Dom Maker and Kai Campos have always known how to masterfully synthesise their talents into one singular yet ever changing vision. Since beginning in 2009, their work has morphed from their distinctly British sound of dubstep and techno to the boundaryless and densely packed collaborations of 'Love What Survives'.
Five years after that scintillating record, the two take their talents as Mount Kimbie to new extremes by splitting them in half entirely. Having walked separate paths musically and physically in the world over the years since 'Love What Survives', Dom and Kai took a literal approach to their latest record, separating it into two distinct, independently produced albums - but linked through shared senses of sonic haziness and melody.
'Die Cuts' shows Dom Maker at a collaborative peak, interspersing vocal cuts, samples, and urban sounds in swiftly stitched vignettes with a slowed down, lo-fi flair. Meanwhile, the chugging beats of 'City Planning' mimic train tracks, as Kai Campos’ album contains rhythmic paintings of urbanity with detailed sonic architecture. These two sides of Mount Kimbie are as different as day and night, yet they inform each other greatly, speaking a simultaneous message from separate locations.
The opening track ‘dvd’ on 'Die Cuts' features a mystical siren song fading in, before slowthai and Danny Brown’s expressive vocals cut through on ‘in your eyes’, trading bittersweet and apoplectic verses. An eerie alarm echoes on ‘heat on, lips on', subsiding with punchy beat and skittering keys, and a scathing, mercurial spoken word spiralling to jazzy loops depicting intimate struggles.
'City Planning' in similar fashion shifts from tense, burrowing bass rumbles to fluttering synth droplets forming rivers of sound. The molten underground beat of ‘Transit Map (Flattened)’ lurches and groans, with piano notes sprawling like the many-coloured intersecting lines of a subway map. Even when split in two, Mount Kimbie provide yet another total upheaval of their sound, combining their individual strengths for a roaringly creative album on 'MK 3.5.' (Bleep)
CLEAR DOUBLE VINYL, PRINTED INNER SLEEVE, CUSTOM DOUBLE SIDED OUTER SLEEVE INCLUDES DOWNLOAD CARD
Tracklist:
Die Cuts
01. dvd (feat. choker)
02. in your eyes (feat. slowthai & danny brown)
03. f1 racer (feat. kučka)
04. heat on, lips on
05. end of the road (feat. reggie)
06. somehow she’s still here (feat. james blake)
07. kissing (feat. slowthai)
08. say that (feat. nomi)
09. need u tonight
10. if and when (feat. wiki)
11. tender hearts meet the sky (feat. keiyaa)
12. a deities encore (feat. liv.e)
City Planning
01. Q
02. Quartz
03. Transit Map (Flattened)
04. Satellite 7
05. Satellite 9
06. Satellite 6 (Corrupted)
07. Zone 3 (City Limits)
08. Zone 2 (Last Connection)
09. Zone 1 (24 Hours)
10. Industry
11. Human Voice