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Sep 12, 2017 Mount Kimbie By Ellen Peirson-Hagger

On the third album from electronic duo Mount Kimbie (Dominic Maker and Kai Campos), it is the gnarly stuff that is best. Once the storming drums really get going, “Blue Train Lines” featuring King Krule, a long-time Mount Kimbie collaborator (and young English maverick in his own right), is a wonderfully troubled, breathless anthem.

With four guest vocalists, each with very different ranges and vocal sentiments, Mount Kimbie have done well to piece together a tight album from what otherwise could very quickly have become a disparate collection of tracks.

Classically-trained Micachu (Mica Levi) provides a welcome sparseness to the irregular rhythms of “Marilyn,” allowing it to become an off-kilter lullaby. French-Mexican Andrea Balency’s vocal contribution to “You Look Certain (I’m Not So Sure)” is another gentle melodic inclusion for a band who were previously associated with “post-dubstep.” Whatever that means, it’s clear Mount Kimbie are now working to a far more soulful beat.

For those enamoured rather than irked by James Blake’s oscillating falsetto, whatever the London-based musician touches turns to gold. “We Go Home Together” and “How We Got By” both feature his painstakingly beautiful vocals. Both slow, haunting tracks, the latter’s “When I stall, I really stall” rings out again and again as a haunting admittance of personal defeat.

In between these vocal highlights are clever instrumental tracks full of glimmering piano and percussive synths. Love What Survives is the sound of a band properly feeling around inside their own melodies. Along with their collaborations has come a glorious melodic freedom. (www.mountkimbie.com)

Author rating: 8/10