Mount Kimbie (aka Kai & Dom)
Fresh from Bristol’s annual Zombie Walk, a man clothed in ripped pyjamas and splattered in bloody makeup stumbles into the Arnolfini. It’s Halloween eve and Bristol’s gone bananas. Whilst the surrounding clubs and pubs of the city centre are crawling with shrieking, zombie-dressed brides, car cleaners and sumos, drinking and drinking, hidden here on the quayside, in amongst the overwhelming havoc, is Bristol’s best kept Halloween secret; a musical mini-fest called ‘Mountain of 9’, the coming together of the world’s most innovative, underground experimentalists inside Bristol’s finest contemporary art gallery. The city’s arty-types (plus a few zombie rogues) have arrived in full capacity to experience what should hopefully be a culmination of all things musically freaky (Last year, one of the ‘Mountain of 8’ co-headliners was the mystical Dirty Projectors).
In the main room, spookily lit with flashing red household light bulbs, the first band on are Bristol’s very own acute oddities, Munch Munch. With a few dedicated fans bobbing up and down at the front, they rattle through their short set, deafening the audience with their unique brand of twee noise-pop, their dominating, intricate rhythms bringing to light the skill of their fantastic drummer (whose drumkit is rightfully placed in the centre of the stage, at the front (pictured below)). And they indeed give a promisingly tight and powerful performance of new song ‘Wolfman’s Blood’.
Munch Munch
I next head up to the ‘Dark Room’, a confined performance area where I come across the fantastic Bfax, a collective of Robert Fripp-esque guitar-sitters, who surprise me with their simple but effective bass loops, chilled beats and demented bird recordings. The aurora created via their combination of improvised lead guitar, electronics and backing acoustic guitars beneath the mumbling, hazy vocals captivates the interested but bemused audience.
After a quick pop out for some noodles, I come back to the main room to find Jamie Stewart’s Xiu Xiu, stalwarts of miserable, overwrought goth-pop performing the tear-jerkingly beautiful ‘Hyunhye’s Theme’. However, the duo unfortunately follow it up with a scratchy mix of crushing synths and uncomfortable shouts which is all a bit freaky and abrasive for my liking, so I venture upstairs in hope of unearthing something a little more soothing.
Xiu Xiu
And I indeed do; I find the surreal Dutchman Paul Metzger and his homemade 23-string banjo. Stood outside the room, peering in, I see him plucking and rolling his fingers along the banjo, shaking it, creating ethereal sounds and sending the audience to sleep. They all wake up again, however, when he starts banging it.
With the main event impending, the café and hall are empty, and rightly so; headliners Mount Kimbie are incredible. They modestly plod onstage, wearing coats, and unshaven faces - looking at them, you never would have thought they’d be the key purveyors of the most forward-thinking musical genre in the world at the moment (Post-dubstep, mate). But the bass drum kicks in and for three quarters of an hour, they perform a collection of infectious and danceable tracks, mostly from their debut album, ‘Crooks & Lovers’, each tune infusing off-beat clicks and whirls from their drum machines with short r ‘n b samples, their own occasional vocals and distorted barre chords. They play almost continuously for the whole set, only stopping a couple of times to affirm their love for the city of Bristol, the audience in turn to shout back their adoration of MK. The whole auditorium shakes its booty for the duration, and upon hearing single ‘Would Know’, we all feel something special is happening; Mount Kimbie will be the defining electronic duo of the teenies, as Pet Shop Boys were in the eighties (lulz), and Daft Punk and Crystal Castles were in the subsequent decades. Post-dubstep is the future.
