Warp レコード& CD

Review: Few bands have sidestepped expectations as cannily as Mount Kimbie. Initially a duo but now expanded into a quartet, the British band has previously excelled in mixing, matching and fusing a wide range of experimental and left of centre electronic music influences. On The Sunset Violet, their first full-length as a quartet, they've shifted sonically once more, leaning into their indie-rock influences on a set recorded in California. The latter aspect - and the impact of being surrounded by sunshine and desert - is reflected in the warmth and haziness of the sound, which draws on the layered vocals and guitars of vintage shoegaze while also reaching for more familiar aspects of the band's previous experimental electronic sounds (for proof, check the ghostly musical vision that is King Krule collaboration 'Boxing').

Review: Mount Kimbie demonstrate their expansive ability to metamorphose over time, with the Sunset Violent being their first record (the follow up to 2022's MK 3.5: Die Cuts I City Planning) to document their efforts as a quartet, as opposed to the simple duo project of Dominic Maker and Kai Campos. Now with composer Andrea Balency-Bearn and Marc Pell (Good Sad Happy Bad), the project brings an ever-so-slightly more conceptual slant to the mix, with the album centring thematically on the UFO sightings of the Yucca Valley, California, and the interplay between the literal desert in that part of the world, and the figurative desert of London (where the album was completed). As ever, the likes of 'Fishbrain' and 'Boxing' deliver indie-electronic buildups, as driving as they are infectious, mixed with the distinctly sepia-textured moods and performative tastes of London's finest (King Krule among them).