words: belcher

Having only just realised this very evening that I missed the release of the new James Blake release Enough Thunder (by a whole 3 months..) I felt it could be quite important to scribble down a few words about a brer who has, over a very short career, produced some seriously genius records on a variety of my favourite labels, not to say anything of his beautiful self titled debut album which came out earlier this year. In this post, I intend to take you through some of the records which I feel made the man, and urge you to look deeper into his music if you like what you hear.

[Before I start handing out free music - I obviously don’t own the rights to any of these tracks, so please by all means get them in your lives and listen to them lots - but I also encourage you as always to go down to a record store and find these on vinyl if you enjoy them and you’re into that kinda thing. This is the kind of music which should be listened to on wax, and I can’t urge you enough to do that.]

If you are a fan of the album already, you may or may not know about his other works before and since. If you’re not familiar with the self titled release, you will almost definitely have heard Limit to your love, his beautiful Feist rendition which was almost over-played on Radio One by the likes of F Cot and Greg James. The rest of the album may seem relatively inaccessible to the average listener at first, but I urge you to give it a try. It is certainly a record which should come as a whole, but to give you a flavour, this is possibly my favourite track.

James Blake - The Wilhelm Scream (James Blake)

Most of the music which Blake is producing in this vein since the album is being released on his own imprint on Polydor, ‘Atlas’ - an achievement which on it’s own is no mean feat for a producer who hasn’t really been knocking about too long. His music crosses the boundary between beautiful production and popular music, which is a very difficult balance to meet, particularly as there has clearly been no process of ‘selling out’ - and it doesn’t look like a likely occurance any time soon. Newly released on Atlas is his Enough Thunder EP, which includes the mindblowingly beautiful collaboration with Bon Iver which I blogged a couple of months back. To get you going, here’s the full release for your listening pleasure.

James Blake - Enough Thunder EP [ATLAS07LP]

As far as my knowledge goes, Blake has been released on four labels alongside Atlas - incidentally four of my favourites - Hemlock Recordings, Brainmath, Hessle Audio and R&S Records. Let’s go though a few.

Hemlock, a staple label of what I’d term ‘bass’ music run by Jack Dunning a.k.a. Untold and Andy Spencer, contains one or two very of my most rated tracks of the moment. Other names include Pangaea, Ramadanman and a new brer on the scene Guy Andrews who’s new release Shades/Textures I have been playing a lot recently. (Guy Andrews is in fact a recent moniker for Iambic, a london based electronic act which has been mixing jass and post-rock vibes with ambient electronica since 2004 - watch this space) I’d say Hemlock is really summed up by it’s collection of artists’ incredible ability to mix polyrhythms and create very interesting dubstep and garage.

My favourite James Blake track on this label also happens to be the one which got me into the man in the first place. Very different from his self-releases, his remix of Stop What You’re Doing by Untold back in 2009 blew my mind. Non of his piano fuelled vocal vibes here, just gully dubstep of the highest order. Many thanks to Xavy D’Cruz for introducing this track to me - it is still one of my favourite of all time.

Untold - Stop What You’re Doing (James Blake Remix) [HEK006]

Another on Hemlock which I am very fond of is his original release prior to this, Air & Lack Thereof, Blake’s debut release as far as I am aware, which is a fantastic example of where his music grew from from in terms of production. Enjoy!

James Blake - Air & Lack Thereof [HEK004]

On Hessle Audio, we find yet more seminal Blake beats - again fairly far removed from the more vocal releases of recent times. Here is another great example of his use of interesting samples to build a beat - some bit crushed circuit bends (and a few of little clips of his own vocals cheekily poking through). Also note his masterful use of sub bass, and synth pad swells, very prominent on more recent tunes. Have a listen to the whole release.

James Blake - The Bells Sketch [HES011]

Two of the more popular Blake records on Belgian label R&S which you may or may not have heard are CMYK EP and Klavierwerke EP - search them out and have a listen. The one I really want to show you is their newest release, Love What Happened Here - which builds so much on the gospel vibes which are prominent on the album, whilst playing with some serious hip hop rhythms (especially of the last track Curbside). I can’t stop listening to this one - I hope you can’t too.

James Blake - Love What Happened Here [RS1111]

I hope you enjoy these tracks as much as I do. I have provided a fairly comprehensive account of JB’s releases, but if you want to do more searching, have a look on his discogs page and get listening.

(Source: jamesblakemusic.com)