CROOKS & LOVERS
Easily one of the most eagerly anticipated album releases of the year so far, could Mount Kimbie’s debut full-length be the LP that kills off the ‘dubstep’ tag once and for all?
If Burial’s Mercury prize-nominated Untrue brought dubstep into the mainstream by virtue of being ‘the exception to the rule’, then the likes of James Blake, Joy Orbison and Mount Kimbie have now pushed the boundaries of what is perceivably ‘dubstep’ so far that the moniker is increasingly being ditched for broad-spectrum genre-identifiers like ‘UK bass’. Even that, however, hardly seems fitting for Mount Kimbie, who are comfortable creating all-encompassing soundscapes with occasionally only the sparsest hints of low-end. When the basslines do interject they certainly make their presence felt, but they aren’t the only thing crafted with detailed attention – the tracks are filled with layers of metronomic acoustic guitar riffs and incomprehensible vocal utterances which will no doubt invite some sort of neo-Burial comparison, although the spliced-up breathy inhalations on Crooks & Lovers conjure up an entirely different atmosphere from the ethereal apparitions on Untrue. At the heart of it all is a core understanding of pop-sensibilities that highlights exactly why Mount Kimbie have managed to overcome the ‘experimental’ label to play their live sets alongside some of the biggest names in the more dancefloor-ready ‘bass’ scene, as well as foraying firmly into the mainstream, supporting the likes of The XX. And who knows – this time next year they could foreseeably be playing to a capacity crowd at The Roundhouse just like The XX, if not necessarily getting airplay on BBC Question Time…
Crooks & Lovers is released today, and you’ll be able to purchase it in all the usual places.
OH!
Those who have been following We Have Band for a while now will remember that the track Oh! was actually one of their very first releases, back towards the end of 2008. Since that time it’s fair to say that the London electro-pop act have gained more than a few fans – you need only have taken a glance at the situation back in May at Stag & Dagger London for evidence of the hype that surrounds them, with sweat-drenched fans desperate to get into a heaving Hoxton Bar & Kitchen that was already at full capacity in anticipation of the start of the band’s set.
So really it’s only fair that the band should give everyone another chance to hear this little slice of electro-disco-pop perfection, complete with one of the catchiest vocal hooks you’ll hear all summer. They’ve also enlisted some top-class remixers for the re-release, including Ed Banger’s Vicarious Bliss, Glasgow-based producer Dam Mantle who we interviewed last month, and even our very own Filthy Dukes.
The single is out on July 12th – check out the band’s official site for details where to download it!
SHAPESHIFTING WITH DELS
DELS is one of the UK’s most promising producers, making hip hop with an intelligent yet playful approach – evident in both his free-flowing lyricism full of pop culture references and effortless wordplay, as well as the club-ready electro-pop beats. Americans are already fortunate enough to have the genre-defying Plastic Little injecting some much-needed individualism (not to mention comic-relief!) to the US hip hop scene, and DELS looks set to be a similar breath of fresh air over on these shores – his debut release even came out on the indie kid’s label-of-choice Moshi Moshi, rather than any of the more hip hop-oriented alternatives. His latest single is a collaboration with Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard, with an ultra-sharp visual attentiveness that would have been evident to anyone who saw DELS debut his now-signature lightboxes during his performance at Stag & Dagger London.
Check out the video, which premiered today, along with a brief interview with the man himself, available exclusively over at Dazed Digital.
LA SHARK REMIX COMPETITION
It’s easier to describe London 5-piece LA Shark by what they’re not, rather than what they are. Not: Boring. Not: Conventional. Not: Of any easy-discernable genre. And now they’re offering everyone the chance to remix their latest single, A Weapon. If it was hard to pigeonhole them before, there’s no telling what genre-defying creations some budding remixers might come up with. There’s still over a month left before entries have to be submitted, so if you have aspirations of creating some sort of 140bpm P-Funk-Step masterpiece then go and grab the stems from LA Shark’s Soundcloud page HERE. Just don’t be surprised when Beatport labels it Electro House.
YU(C)K
Shoegaze-y grungers Yuck don’t like being called up-and-comers. Why? Not because the band, whose members span the globe from London to Hiroshima by way of New Jersey and have already plied their trade in a series of other groups before beginning their latest project, find it patronising. Nor because it’s a clichéd and lazy cop-out for music journalists struggling to get through their ever-growing piles of promo CDs (or should that be mp3s?). Nope, the reason, according to the band’s Twitter feed, is that the term “up and coming” reminds them of “erections and ejaculations”. How Freudian.
That in itself should tell you a lot about the band. They don’t particularly care what people think, and, judging by their up-and-com… forthcoming release – a super-limited edition cassette EP – they’re not too concerned if people can hear their tracks either. Actually, that’s not strictly true, since they’ve also made one of the tracks from the EP available as a free download via Dummy Mag. Just as well, too, because it’s rather good.
