The Sunset Violent began in a disused frat house in the American Yucca Valley. Kimbie’s founding members Dominic Maker & Kai Campos began work on their first proper album together since 2017’s Love What Survives – the decision was made to leave London. Campos and Maker relocated for a month to a town in the middle of a desert. The resulting album, finished in London with longtime confidante Dillip Harris and their band mates Andrea Balency-Béarn and Marc Pell, is 37 minutes of Mount Kimbie at simultaneously their most daring and their most giddily infectious.

Now officially a four piece band, led by duo Kai Campos and Dom Maker; London’s Mount Kimbie released ‘The Sunset Violent’ back in April. Their fourth album proper is a superb return to form after 2017’s ‘Love What Survives’. On this album, the group begin to move away from their electronic roots, via a route of fuzzy guitars and kraut-esque drum rhythms. Despite still being in the early stages of experimentation with ‘guitar music’ Mount Kimbie show themselves fearless and rather adept in the field; exploring this new path with much promise. Highlights aplenty here, notably ‘A Figure In The Surf’, as well as the two tracks with long time collaborator King Krule: the shoegazey ‘Boxing’ and the album closer ‘Empty and Silent’.

By Spike