Mount Kimbie – Soundcloud Go The Secret Show

The talk of the town on night two of The Great Escape Festival was the Mount Kimbie ‘Soundcloud Go The Secret Show’ at Volks Nightclub. Right along Brighton’s seafront, we were welcomed with glorious sunshine and Soundcloud-orange everything. Soundcloud-orange rock, Soundcloud-orange cocktails, and Soundcloud-orange Mr Whippy. The latter deceivingly tasted like orange ice cream but I was informed, however, that it was just regular ol’ vanilla.

Opening the show was London-based Kojey Radical (pictured, below) spitting lyrics that made anybody walking by stop dead in their tracks. Kojey asked the crowd, ‘You wanna wiggle, you wanna jiggle or you wanna turn up?’, which is when things got particularly sweaty. By the end of the set, the crowd were cheering for more, especially when Kojey said, ‘Whoever is telling me to get down from here is getting really angry’ as he performed on top of amps, high above the stage floor.

We then heard sets from producer and instrumentalist Romare and genre-shifting beat-matcher Oneman. Soon though, there was only one thing on anyone’s mind. Mount Kimbie.

Mount Kimbie’s setup was surprisingly large. With multiple laptops, synths, drum-pads and more, the two-piece became a four-piece, adding in a drummer and another multi-instrumentalist who also sang. Dominic Maker and Kai Campos (pictured, top and below) performed with such mathematical precision, I even heard someone yell out afterwards, ‘It was like watching maths, but in a good way!’

A 45-minute set allowed the crowd to hear favourites such as ‘Carbonated’, ‘Home Recording’ and ‘Before I Move Off’, but also brand new material from their forthcoming third album. You could almost see the tension lift from the band members’ shoulders as the crowd swallowed the sounds whole and came back desperately wanting more.

Finishing with ‘Made To Stray’, one of their most iconic songs from their 2013 album, you could see members Maker and Campos sneaking each other smiles, enjoying the moment.

It was an exciting opportunity to see such an innovative band so close up and not from the back of a large festival crowd. Both Soundcloud and The Great Escape should be applauded for showcasing such incredible talent in an intimate venue and to a clearly appreciative audience.

Here’s the full setlist:

Carbonated
Home Recording
Bass Thing
Marilyn
Before I Move Off
Synth
So Many Times, So Many Ways
170
Field
Made To Stray

Review by Jayne Cheeseman. Kojey and top Mount Kimbie photo by James Kelly. Second Mount Kimbie photo by Bobby Townsend