You're probably all sick of reading about Portal 2 now, all you can expect is outright praise or criticism that borders on mass-trolling. A balanced viewpoint is seemingly impossible when talking about one of the cornerstones of gamin culture and, it seems, everyone's secret love. Anyway, I thought I'd take the time out of my non-existent schedule to introduce you to something you may really enjoy and also to provide something a little bit different for you to read.
[img_inline align="right" caption="Because only the cool can name albums after themselves..."]http://www.addictmusic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/James-Blake-Album-Cover-300x300.jpg[/img_inline]
[HEADING=1]James Blake[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]James Blake[/HEADING]
[h4]Genre = Electronic
Number of Songs = 11
Sounds like: Aphex Twin used Deadmau5's software to try to imitate Radiohead.
Listen to: I Mind, Unluck and Wilhelm Scream
[/h4]
With some things you can say that you admire them more than you actually like them, James Blake's self titled album is one of those things, for me at least. What we have with this album is a dubstep producer-come-songwriter who's released one of the most truly experimental albums we're likely to see for a good while now.
And he pulls it off, for the most part.
This is intelligent music, bordering on IDM [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_dance_music], that steers clear of all you expect from it. Every step of the album has you guessing what exactly will come next, melodies and vocals are merged to initially sound jarring but slowly emerge as complementary and there's a huge range of styles to keep you interested.
For the most part, however, Blake sticks to soft dubstep over-layered with vocals. It's an odd combination, one which I'd wager you haven't really come across before, but it results in a more mature, complete form of music we've seen from other electro-soloists such as Owl City. (Though it pains me to link this to Owl City...)
[soundcloud=http://soundcloud.com/la3eheure/james-blake-i-mind]
As far as the actual dubstep part of this album goes, it's absolutely phenomenal. Well, to be honest I'd be lying if I said it could be classified as dubstep, it lacks the bass (womwomwom) but it certainly takes a lot of influence from the genre. In any case, it's incredibly complex and unique, building up and building down, surprising you when you least expect it... from any kind of music this is all you can ask for and it's done with such fluidity and style that avoids the often jarring transitions that we have come to expect from most electronic music.
The vocals, on the other hand, leave something to be desired. He's an okay singer and his voice has a certain charm to it with it's tiny, noticeable cracks, he obviously uses software to affect the sound here and there, but it's done so to make it fit in with the background music and never resorts to cheap, emotionless auto-tune. The problem I have though, is that the lyrics are pretty appalling. In some places they're embarrassingly reminiscent of a melodramatic teenager stuck in his bedroom, and although this might be the case I don't think we like to be reminded of it. Intelligent music demands insightful lyrics, and we're left without them. This isn't a major deal-breaker, but it prevents the album from perfection and for me that's one of the worst things you can do.
Another slight nit-pick I have to bring up is the lack of consistency in the album, although I can happily admire every song for it's complexities and uniqueness there are a few which I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to. Lindesfarne I and II are prime examples. I'd say though, that the rest of the album makes up for this: the terrific opener, Unluck is a brilliant, jaunty introduction to the album while I Mind verges into "Boards of Canada" territory with it's disjointed parts gradually combining to form an effect that just makes you want to listen again, and again, and again.
James Blake's debut album is by no means perfection, but I think it's something that every self respecting music lover should listen to. If not just to catch a glimpse at the glory days of 90's electronic.
[img_inline align="right" caption="Because only the cool can name albums after themselves..."]http://www.addictmusic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/James-Blake-Album-Cover-300x300.jpg[/img_inline]
[HEADING=1]James Blake[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]James Blake[/HEADING]
[h4]Genre = Electronic
Number of Songs = 11
Sounds like: Aphex Twin used Deadmau5's software to try to imitate Radiohead.
Listen to: I Mind, Unluck and Wilhelm Scream
[/h4]
With some things you can say that you admire them more than you actually like them, James Blake's self titled album is one of those things, for me at least. What we have with this album is a dubstep producer-come-songwriter who's released one of the most truly experimental albums we're likely to see for a good while now.
And he pulls it off, for the most part.
This is intelligent music, bordering on IDM [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_dance_music], that steers clear of all you expect from it. Every step of the album has you guessing what exactly will come next, melodies and vocals are merged to initially sound jarring but slowly emerge as complementary and there's a huge range of styles to keep you interested.
For the most part, however, Blake sticks to soft dubstep over-layered with vocals. It's an odd combination, one which I'd wager you haven't really come across before, but it results in a more mature, complete form of music we've seen from other electro-soloists such as Owl City. (Though it pains me to link this to Owl City...)
[soundcloud=http://soundcloud.com/la3eheure/james-blake-i-mind]
As far as the actual dubstep part of this album goes, it's absolutely phenomenal. Well, to be honest I'd be lying if I said it could be classified as dubstep, it lacks the bass (womwomwom) but it certainly takes a lot of influence from the genre. In any case, it's incredibly complex and unique, building up and building down, surprising you when you least expect it... from any kind of music this is all you can ask for and it's done with such fluidity and style that avoids the often jarring transitions that we have come to expect from most electronic music.
The vocals, on the other hand, leave something to be desired. He's an okay singer and his voice has a certain charm to it with it's tiny, noticeable cracks, he obviously uses software to affect the sound here and there, but it's done so to make it fit in with the background music and never resorts to cheap, emotionless auto-tune. The problem I have though, is that the lyrics are pretty appalling. In some places they're embarrassingly reminiscent of a melodramatic teenager stuck in his bedroom, and although this might be the case I don't think we like to be reminded of it. Intelligent music demands insightful lyrics, and we're left without them. This isn't a major deal-breaker, but it prevents the album from perfection and for me that's one of the worst things you can do.
Another slight nit-pick I have to bring up is the lack of consistency in the album, although I can happily admire every song for it's complexities and uniqueness there are a few which I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to. Lindesfarne I and II are prime examples. I'd say though, that the rest of the album makes up for this: the terrific opener, Unluck is a brilliant, jaunty introduction to the album while I Mind verges into "Boards of Canada" territory with it's disjointed parts gradually combining to form an effect that just makes you want to listen again, and again, and again.
James Blake's debut album is by no means perfection, but I think it's something that every self respecting music lover should listen to. If not just to catch a glimpse at the glory days of 90's electronic.
