R&S records still bringing the heat after all these years.....
Tracklist:01 CMYK
02 Footnotes
03 I'll Stay
04 Postpone
"Blake’s past releases on Hessle Audio and Hemlock have gathered him close to universal acclaim – not least from us – and ‘CMYK’ sees more of the fried synth torture and cut vocals that have become his trademark.
On the EP’s title track, which is both its immediate stand-out and a staple of recent DJ sets by Ben UFO and others, the staccato vocals are maybe more in your face than any Blake track to date, and also like most Blake to date, sounds very good. The rest isn’t bad either.
The ‘CMYK’ EP will be released on May 31, in digital and 12″ vinyl" (FACT MAGZINE)
GUARDIAN INTERVIEW - Future go-to producer of UK urban pop? James Blake
Hometown: London.
The lineup: James Blake (vocals, music, production).
The background: James Blake is a 22-year-old producer who has been studying contemporary music at Blur's alma mater Goldsmiths College, and in a way it sounds as though he's regurgitating a lot of what he's learned, in the best possible way. There's a lot of music to take in here; certainly it's going to be harder than usual to say what it is, although we can have a stab at saying what he does.
He does a few things – three, principally, only two of which we've heard. He's a dubstep artist who's just signed to the excellent R&S label, and although we're not as knee-deep as Mary Ann Hobbs in the stuff, his 2009 debut 12-inch Air and Lack Thereof places itself superbly – in terms of production detail, noir melody and sense of London as exciting psychogeographic space – alongside Aidy's Girl Is A Computer, Black Sun and the best of the Hyperdub label.
The second thing for which Blake is making a name for himself are his R&B/ hip-hop-sampling exercises that he records as Harmonimix, where he reworks tunes like Lil Wayne's A Milli and Snoop Dogg's Drop It Like It's Hot. And thirdly there are his hissy, scratchy, simple and plaintive piano tracks recorded on his laptop. They're supposedly primitive but personal affairs featuring his own, albeit treated, vocals – like we say, we've not heard them, but we're guessing at an approximation of Moby's field recordings, only think London Fields, not somewhere rural and American.
Actually, Blake's new EP, CMYK, appears to be a conflation of those first two ventures. It comprises four tracks, and they're based almost solely on R&B samples from the likes of Aaliyah, Brandy and R Kelly. There are micro-beats, lots of space (or do we mean "lost in space"?), some Auto-Tuned vocals, possibly Blake's own, as well as cut-up, chopped, diced and sped-up or slowed-down male and female vocal melodies from barely recognisable urban hits. It's a kind of dubstep R&B, but unlike, say, Squarepusher's 2001 single My Red Hot Car or Aphex Twin's Windowlicker, which were equal parts loving and facetious homage to UK garage and Timbaland's avant-dance, this stuff appears to be a reverential take on the soundtrack to the 6'5" wunderkind's youth. The title track, for example, is a beautiful piece of music: twitchy, tense, but captivatingly melodic and brilliantly arranged, it essays a new form of intelligent but never arid, electronic urban soul.
The buzz: "There's a unique and playful soulfulness to Blake's tracks, which often feature his own singing voice slowed down by intense digital effects. The result is a bit like a futuristic, lurching take on Moby's Play" – Pitchfork.
The truth: Welcome to Blake's heaven (rickety late-70s Brit sci-fi TV show pun intended).
Most likely to: Make Blake the go-to producer of UK urban pop.
Least likely to: Hang around Deptford any longer than he needs to.
What to buy: The CMYK EP is released by R&S on 31 May.
File next to: Beaty Heart, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Darkstar.
ALSO CHECK OUT......
Pariah – Detroit Falls/Orpheus (R&S)(2010)
Tracklisting:
1. Detroit Falls
2. Orpheus
"Debut single for hotly tipped London based producer Pariah on the legendary R&S record label. Pariah is a precocious young talent, and part of the same London bass music scene that has spawned the likes of Burial, Bullion, James Blake, Pangaea and Untold. The two tracks on this debut single were the his first ever finished productions and snapped up by R&S under the noses of a whole bunch of interested high profile labels. Both cuts wear their influences on their sleeve, referencing the hip hop beat collages of Dilla and the moody atmospheric 2-step rhythms of Burial, Levon Vincent, Fennesz and classic Detroit techno as well as the likes of MJ Cole and Steve Gurley, but still contain the rich Pariah DNA which will be even more apparent on his future R&S singles." (PICCADILLY RECORDS)/