Song of the Day: Mount Kimbie - Made To Stray

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. This week, we’re featuring songs by artists performing at the 10th annual Decibel Festival. Today’s song is “Made To Stray” by Mount Kimbie from the 2013 album Cold Spring Fault Less Youth on Warp.

Mount Kimbie - Made To Stray (MP3)

The progenitors of post-dubstep, the English duo of Dom Maker and Kai Campos make dreamlike, abstract electronic music as Mount Kimbie. The duo's first releases emerged in 2009, but their 2010 debut album, Crooks & Lovers took the UK electronic scene by storm, gathering critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic and helped introduce the world to a singer by the name of James Blake. As the touring cycle behind Crooks & Lovers wound down, the duo reentered the studio, releasing the end result, Cold Spring Fault Less Youth, in May. "Made To Stray" is a twisting and turning five minutes of electronic music that thrives on restlessness as it whirrs through. After three-and-a-half minutes of subtly tense buildup, the duo's vocals show up, but low in the mix, as if they were pieces of the machine rather than the lead component. When they hit the titular refrain clearly in the song's intro, they're gone as fast as they came, onto another path.

Mount Kimbie play Decibel Festival as part of the Nicolas Jaar & Friends showcase at Showbox SoDo on Friday, September 27th. Get tickets and info about that all-ages show here, and watch the video for the Cold Spring Fault Less Youth track "You Took Your Time (feat. King Krule)" below.