#bleep10

Its been 10 years since the music download platform Bleep shared its first track online. The offshoot of Warp Records provided one of the first UK download websites for music and spearheaded the electronic underground ever since. It seems apropriate that a genre that is completely reliant on technology should be celebrated on arguably the biggest invention in human history. The internet for electronic music has completely changed the game, with the invention of websites such as soundcloud making it easy for anyone to share their own tracks. The influence is apparent in the music itself with whole concept albums based on the paranoia it creates, such as the groundbreaking y2k inspire 'Kid A' by Radiohead or even Damon Alburns upcoming debut. There is always this parallel with the fear of the internet overtaking our lives paired with a celebration for its existance, very rarely is there a total celebration of the technological wonders the internet provides.

It is this very theme that made Mount Kimbie and Fuck Buttons live audio visual show at Barbican so incredible. The show was one in a series to celebrate the 10th birthday of Bleep.com with a visual show curated by artists Thomas Hamen and Igor Zimmerman. Technology really was the spearhead of the show if it be the live video projection of Fuck Buttons warped and manipulated to a colourful spectrum, or the huge metallic sheet hovering above Mount Kimbie blowing upwards by fans while Kimbie played their genre defining loops. Although the visual aspect really stimulated the performance, at the heart of the show was the music from two of the most groundbreaking artists of late. 

Mount Kimbie opened with 'Home Recording' and played a majority of their new album with live brass instruments. As it was a sit down concert, its purpose really was to enjoy the music much like a classical concert and its only in this way do you realise how great Mount Kimbie are. Although none of the set featured the famed King Krule collaborations it gave plenty of their blend of organic and electronic fusion with highlights of 'Made to Stray' and 'So Many Times, So Many Ways'. They closed with a brand new track that extended for 10 minutes into blissful house inspired beats while strobes assaulted you from every angle. It was a surreal experience especially as their music is in essence dance music and sitting down restricts movement to head bobbing and feet tapping. Mount Kimbie restated their effort as the freshest and most interesting electronic act of this generation, and that was before noise pioneers Fuck Buttons came on.

Those new to Fuck Buttons music usually find it hard to swallow apart from the famed Olympic opening ceremony song 'Olympians' which they played early on in the set. But what made their performance were the incredible visuals of the duo's silhouettes projected over screensaver like images that gradually warped into kaleidoscopic colours and fractals that danced along to the repetitive drones of synth. The repeated tribal beats that famed them as instant legends was hypnotic and although usually their songs tend to go on slightly longer than needed, in a live context the tracks fly by. Fuck Buttons really are a band to be experienced live to get the full extent of their euphoric drones, the set was rememberable to say the least.