Mount Kimbie has been dismantling genre walls with precision and curiosity for over fifteen years. What started as a production duo—Dominic Maker and Kai Campos—tinkering with dubstep mutations in South London has since evolved into a fluid, four-person entity, now including longtime collaborators Andrea Balency-Béarn and Marc Pell. Their music, stacked with field recordings and unconventional soundscapes, is a shapeshifting organism that threads together electronic experimentation, post-punk propulsion, and shoegaze textures with rare finesse. On Thursday, February 27, Bucharest welcomes a special Mount Kimbie DJ set as aim+wall presents another night of alternative electronic music at Control Club.
Maker, from Chichester, and Campos, from Cornwall, first collided at Southbank University. Their early concoctions of spliced-together field recordings, skeletal beats, and vaporous melodies formed the DNA of 2009’s Maybes and Sketch on Glass EPs (Hotflush Recordings). These records caught fire in the post-dubstep movement, proving that it could be tactile, fragile, and human. In 2010, their debut full-length on Hotflush, Crooks & Lovers, defied the bombast of its dubstep contemporaries, instead whispering its innovations through intricately woven loops and hushed atmospheres. Critics from Pitchfork to Mixmag swooned, and its place on multiple decade-best lists confirmed Mount Kimbie as the nordstar of a new era.
Signing with Warp Records in 2012 gave the duo a new playground for re-imagination. With Cold Spring Fault Less Youth (2013), they ditched the laptop-heavy compositions in favor of more immediate instrumentation, pulling in none other than King Krule on vocals. Then came Love What Survives (2017), their most physical record—a propulsive post-punk collision with electronic that yielded explosive results. Collaborators included James Blake, Mica Levi, Micachu, and King Krule, birthing standout tracks like Blue Train Lines, Marilyn, and We Go Home Together. With the album's success, the band roared on stages worldwide, their influence spreading into the DNA of London’s new post-punk vanguard.
In 2022, Mount Kimbie released the double album MK 3.5: Die Cuts | City Planning, following some time exploring solo work. In 2024, The Sunset Violent would be released—a mirage of the California Yucca Valley's auburn Americana that merged shoegaze haze with their patented electronic precision.
Between records, Maker and Campos carved out their own lanes. Campos explored the harder edges of electronic music with DJ sets, telling a different story for those who thought they had him pegged. His City Planning side to MK 3.5: Die Cuts | City Planning was a meticulous exploration of techno and architectural minimalism, accompanied by an installation with Tom Shannon and visual artist Frank Lebon. Clubs like Printworks, Fabric, and Blitz felt his DJ sets reveal a sharper energy than Mount Kimbie’s studio output ever suggested. A frequent NTS guest and an Essential Mix alum, Campos is a selector with a surgically precise scalpel hand, stitching together Berlin minimalism, electro, and techno that never settle into predictability. This reputation would skyrocket after the Mount Kimbie-presented DJ-Kicks mix in 2018 that bypassed club bangers for increased focus on mood, space, and tension. Since then, Campos has remained deeply active, embarking on a B2B tour with Actress and headlining venues such as London's Printworks and Fabric.
On the other hand, Maker took the producer route, sliding into studio sessions with hip-hop and R&B royalty—Travis Scott, SZA, Metro Boomin’, Dave, and James Blake. This reputation would eventually lead to collaborations that involved artists such as Rosalia, Jay-Z, and Slowthai.
From playing world-class venues like Tate Modern, Barbican, and MoMA PS1 to dominating festival circuits—Primavera, Coachella, Glastonbury, MELT—Mount Kimbie has built a dedicated following as diverse as their music. They are artists who thrive in the in-between, never static, and always on the move.
