Singles Gettin' Heady

by Tyler Parks

03.24.2009

Mount Kimbie
Maybes
Hotflush Recordings

An EP can prove a wonderful introduction. Four songs say, all different but all held together by elusive, inextricable bonds. No big track to cast a long shadow over the others, nothing too conspicuous, just something bubbling below the surface that keeps calling you back. I am having this kind of a relationship with Maybes, the first release by Londoners Mount Kimbie. Unwittingly smiling into virtual coves of bluish fog, watching clouds blown across the sky behind windowed walls, horizontal on the bed penetrating the texture of the ceiling-all the while playing these four tracks again and again, end to end, wondering, wandering and whiling away the time.

Evidently, I am not the only one having this strong of a reaction to this little slab of vinyl. It has already become virtually impossible to track down for mail order. It was released in January on the predominantly dubstep imprint, Hotflush, owned by the producer Scuba. And there are certainly dubstep elements here, especially in the drum programming. These tracks sometimes verge on familiar song structure-both tracks on the A-side include vocals-but always remain somewhat abstract and unpredictable.

"Maybes" begins the EP with a fuzzy, reverb heavy series of guitar chords that create a warm sense of space. This is interrupted by some vocals pitched chipmunk high and a clickity-clunk beat which actually doesn't interrupt so much as add to the dreaminess established by the processed guitar. "William" starts off sounding like some of the melancholic, space-cadet memory music that Jon Brion composed for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. A muffled kick drum comes in and some skateboard sounds and then a laconically delivered vocal that disappears as soon as you've begun to start making out the words consciously. A minor slice of an ambivalently borrowed heaven.

Side-B moves from the pensive, reverb-washed synths and percolating rhythms of "Vertical" to the downbeat moodiness of closer "Taps." The latter leaves things hanging like a macabre lullaby, setting uneasy dreams loose at the moment it brings the body to a comforting stillness. A personal observation: overall, Maybes serves well as a companion to Animal Collective's latest turn, especially songs like "My Girls" and, even more so, "Daily Routine." It also brings to mind the clicking ambience of Múm's Yesterday Was Dramatic-Today Is OK, and a melodic IDM sensibility in general. For those interested in floating in all its various incarnations.

Listen :
"William"
"Maybes"