Mount Kimbie @ Union Transfer.

Text by Jumah Chaguan. Images by Menglong Liang.

Outside, the heat scorched the foreheads of hatless people. It was the first official heat wave of Philadelphia’s 2013 summer. On the other side of the Atlantic in England, the weather was in the low 60s, rain-free and sunny – a perfect day for many Londoners.

However, the English musical duo Mount Kimbie were stateside and had to bear with the heat before their first concert ever in Philadelphia on Friday.

“I’m not going out in this heat,” said Kai Campos of Mount Kimbie about not being able see more of Philly.

Kai and Dom Maker, the other half of Mount Kimbie, now have to take better care of themselves. They have incorporated more instruments and vocals into their electronica sound which means more can go wrong on stage. Inside the cool and dark Union Transfer concert hall, Mount Kimbie was focused on the rehearsal. Kai heard distortion from one of the speakers and asked the sound engineer for help.

“Yeah, we are bit of perfectionists,” said Kai backstage in the air-conditioned dressing room. “Tonight is going to be a great show.”

Dom nodded in agreement. He sat back while Kai sat forward and on the sofa’s edge. The men looked fatigued but with good reason. The night before, they played a sold- out show in NYC’s Bowery Ballroom.

After two years of self-imposed seclusion to write their new album, “Cold Spring Fault Less Youth,” Mount Kimbie has released a more introspective sound that has evolved from their previous dance music album “Crooks and Lovers.”

“Hopefully we will gain a different number of followers that we didn’t achieve with ‘Crooks and Lovers,’” said Dom. “The whole sound is way broader and references a lot more music than the first record.”

It looked like Dom’s wish came true judging by the Philadelphia crowd. Although not a sold-out show, those in attendance were a human kaleidoscope, with everyone dancing to the electronic ambient beats. High school girls in floral minis and fleur-de-lis tops bumped into hipsters. Away from center stage, bearded men in T-shirts and homemade cutoff jeans were feet away from corporate men, dressed in light blue pressed shirts and pants.

Mount Kimbie’s tour hits all the major electronic U.S. music scenes including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, a major hub for electronica. Those who made it to the intimate Mount Kimbie concert were in for a real surprise. Mount Kimbie added to its tour Holy Other, a Manchester-based producer and master of 2-step and down-tempo. The tour even gives Vinyl Williams, a new electronic psychedelica group hailing from Utah, the opportunity to enter the scene.

“People were more personal than in NYC,” said lead singer Lionel Williams about the Philly crowd. “People were making eye contact.”

Yes, Mount Kimbie is not very well known in our city. This could be a mixed blessing. Without the crowds’ knowledge, Dom joined the concert-goers and hung out in the back to watch Holy Other. He nodded his head to the chill beats and observed the attendees in anonymity. They were still and silent, perhaps enchanted with Holy Other’s ethereal sounds.

The crowd was different tonight. Even the bouncers noticed. Till, well over 6’4 in height with the frame of an MMA fighter, walked through the relaxed crowd. He is a full- time nurse but moonlights as a bouncer at the Union Transfer.

“This is a cool crowd,” said Till. “No drugs. It’s going to be a nice night.”

The music and its effects on the crowd doesn’t go unnoticed even by new listeners to this music. Sarah Kim, a 16-year-old Landsdale high school student, had just looked up the concert. As a rite of passage she leaves the suburbs and heads towards the city to look for new sounds on a Friday humid night.

“There are different forms of arts that speak to different people,” said Kim. “This makes you feel like you’re alive.”

For some this sound might be too indie. The UK has pioneered this form of beats but in the U.S., Mount Kimbie finds a different freedom.

“We are judged less over here as part of any particular scene,” said Kai. “Here, they are just taking us for what we are, which is quite nice. This music is for everybody. It’s not part of a scene. You don’t have to understand techno to get into the music.”

The music press has labelled Mount Kimbie as the pioneers of the post-dub genre. This could be a burden to them. They have been knighted so early in their careers and given a prominent place in the electronica canon. However, the level-headed Dom put Mount Kimbie’s rise to fame in perspective.

“The way the first album was received was really positive for us and has allowed us to carry on as a band,” said Dom. “I don’t think it has anything to do with this postdub label. To have it constricted to a word that refers to such a small amount of sound is something that inevitably we are going to try to get away from.”

Their new album is different and borrows from different styles, even some jazz. Surprisingly, Mount Kimbie even credits White Denim, a garage band from Austin, Texas as an influence on their new record. But this departure from club beats of popular hits such as “Carbonated” will be a surprise to current fans.

“It’s a more challenging record to get into,” said Kai. “It might take a little bit longer for people to understand the language of the record. It’s a more rewarding record in some ways. It’s a record of our own little world.”

When Kimbie walked on to the stage, the crowd welcomed them with applause and yells. Kai, all dressed in black, fixed the wires next to the keyboard. Dom dressed in red and black adjusted the mic stand.

A young female fan was within a hand’s reach and she said something to Kai. He squatted and smiled, telling her something only for her to jump up and down in excitement. She held her head and smiled.

“It’s electronic but organic at the same time,” said Jason Guntunen, a fan who is studying to be a nurse. “They are whole, round and extremely rich. This is not typical techno. It’s beautiful! I’m really happy that they came to Philly.”

On stage, the lights alternated between white and red. Kai’s head bobbed in rhyhtm while Don nodded on the down beat and at a slower pace. In the background, images were projected onto a large screen. Candid snapshots of vacation trips, laughing friends, air plane landings and take offs were juxtaposed with images of South Asia and daily London routines. The collage of fast moving images was deliberate and made to reflect the varied sound that Mount Kimbie now embraces, Dom said. They sang their new song “Made to Stray” perhaps a well chosen title for their new musical direction.

Kai quit university to join Mount Kimbie full-time. He and Dom gave themselves the opportunity to dive into their musical dream. Right now, this is his dream job.

“These doors are open right now,” said Dom. “I’m not worried about it. I love what I do at the moment. I just want to ride the wave for as long as it goes. I don’t care how long it takes. I’m content.”