- Sydney's modern answer to a hip North London dive—Oxford Art Factory—was the fitting venue for UK bass act Mount Kimbie's second sold out show in the city. As the early evening crowd mingled in small patches throughout the mood lit space, the Future Classic DJs provided the beats, spinning their trademark broad-brush house and disco. The early vibe felt typical to the kind of Sydney crowd an act as hyped as Mount Kimbie would attract; contained excitement served with a large side of self-consciousness.
As the room began to thicken, local laptop heroes Seekae kicked off the night's live proceedings with their glitchy, uplifting electronica that consisted of material from their debut album as well as new tracks from the forthcoming + DOME. The trio's constantly evolving melodies that built into wondrous peaks of euphoria backed with pounding broken beats and live drumming made for a truly mesmerising performance, and the evident enthusiasm for their craft helped to overcome the sometimes tedious display of a bunch of dudes hunched over MacBooks (extra points went to one bobbing his head up and down like an enthusiastic Masai). The crowd, now shed of its reserve through strength in numbers, were in full swing and certainly getting off on what Seekae were pumping out. When they announced it was time to play some hip-hop and began beating the crap out of a sample of White Town's "Your Woman," everyone went suitably nuts.
The place was packed out and a veritable sweatbox by the time Mount Kimbie took to the stage. The pair began with an ambient intro overlayed with a woman's voice waxing on about dinosaurs before launching into a reverb-drenched set of their catalogue. Thankfully it wasn't just a "press play" affair, as tracks were chopped, changed and touched up with bits of extra synth here and added sub-bass there to suit the live context. Heavily (and appropriately) atmospheric at times, the haziness was always balanced out with Kimbie's distinctly fractured beats, quirky synths or a touch of rock energy—like when Kai Campos busted out on his guitar to strum the riff on "Field" to rapturous applause. The highlight of their set probably had to be split between the understated groove of "Before I Move Off," the empty-tunnel beauty of "William" and the spectacular finale of "Maybes," where Dominic Maker sung in full the track's sampled vocal snippets. Mount Kimbie were good, real good. But they'd better watch out…because Seekae were fantastic.