The Rhythm Of The Routines

Mount Kimbie featuring King Krule “Empty and Silent”

Mount Kimbie’s new album is their third in a row with at least one song featuring King Krule, which is a pretty cool tradition for them. It’s kinda sorta like if Crosby, Stills, and Nash had figured out a way to make sure they could always get a Neil Young song on every record. I like the way Mount Kimbie push King Krule into arrangements that are more dynamic than what he often makes on his own – I think of the beats tumbling and thumping around his voice on “Meter, Pale, Tone,” or the way “Blue Train Lines” accelerates in its second half. “Empty and Silent” starts off ambient but shifts into an intriguing combination of 80s indie rock and motorik groove. The music is fairly busy but the atmosphere feels very light, as though there’s a wide open space at the center of the song and everything is moving on the periphery. King Krule’s voice sounds vaguely serene in this one, as though he’s reaching some zen state by meditating on a city that turns into a ghost town once the working day is through, or finding some peace as he lets go of painful memories of being sick and depressed.

Buy it from Bandcamp.