Known to many as the band who introduced the “post-dubstep” era, Mount Kimbie have always defied expectation. After meeting at college in London and bonding over a shared love of electronic music, the UK duo of Dominic Maker and Kai Campos explored the spaces around the popular dance music of 2008 to create a unique and intimate debut that sounded like nothing else. Since then, they've had many imitators of their own, but Mount Kimbie continue to forge ahead. Their new LP, Cold Spring Fault Less Youth, opens the doors of their bedroom studio to allow a surprising amount of live instrumentation. Synths, guitars, drum machines, and live drums combine with prerecorded and found samples that don’t drone, but rather fly, altogether arranged through myriad effects to form a sonic mosaic, rather than a rigid wall. That's right, Mount Kimbie have evolved into a band, as they proved during a recent in-studio session at KEXP, recorded before their showcase at Decibel Festival this year, by playing live as a trio, alternating on guitar, bass and keys, and even adding live vocals of their own. Check out the genre-defying set of this "former electronic duo" here:
Full performance:
When asked to describe his music, Zach Saginaw, operating under the pseudonym Shigeto, urges prospective fans to "have a listen". Drawing on his jazz background, instrumental hip-hop and years of drumming to create beat-heavy electronic tracks, Shigeto's music does indeed transcend traditional genr…
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If composers like Mozart and Tchaikovsky were born today, would we recognize their work? Would they create the same kind of heady and emotive symphonies and concertos as they did in the past? Or would the history of rock and electronica bend them in a new direction? Maybe only time will tell if we'…
