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Mount Kimbie - Crooks & Lovers

Album Reviews

It needs more work, more effort maybe? It's hard to tell with such a burgeoning style.

It's hard to say whether or not Hot Flush Recordings' anti-piracy scheme is a stroke of genius or the worst idea ever. Now they're obviously not the only people to apply the mechanism, but it really is quite difficult to actually enjoy a record when an irritating automated woman's voice is dotted all over it. I know who put this record out, I'm reviewing it, I like music- this shit ain't going online, no chance.

Since the release of the 'Maybes' ep at the start of 2009, Mount Kimbie have been the hot flush everybody's hankering for. Being linked to the electronic scene's sweetheart, James Blake, only helps matters; his remix of the ep's title track had music nerds creaming themselves, and justifiably so. His collaboration with the Peckham duo has only upped their street cred, not that they're particularly lacking without.

The sound of Crooks & Lovers is the new sound; that slow, ebbing, watered down sound. Bizarrely, it's still penned as dubstep, a matter which should be up for much debate. Sure, the pulsating, steady basslines hold the pace, like some more artful and intricate take on Joker's early stuff, but the boot doesn't quite fit. What to call it then? I'd opt for “submarine sounds”.

The main flaw with the record lies not in its misled genre classification, but more in the direction it takes. Rarely does a track seem to climax; it's like having ok sex - nearly there, but not quite. It needs more work, more effort maybe? It's hard to tell with such a burgeoning style. The current climate appears to demand that no one hates on any artist producing this “submarine sound”, but it just doesn't quite feel as though it has yet come into fruition.

The highlights on the album, 'Before I Move Off' and 'Mayor' being two, seem more certain, confident. Like the sassier kids at school, these tracks seem to know their identity, but the fact that the record doesn't begs the question: do Mount Kimbie know theirs? I guess it's now just a matter of waiting for them to surface to air. Rating: 5/10