James Blake

If the name James Blake is unfamiliar to you, it shouldn’t be for long. Since the release of his first EP a year and a half ago on Untold’s Hemlock Recordings, he has been steadily gaining a very large following. Initially, that following came from electronic dance music circles; however, today Blake finds himself poised to explode onto a wider audience in a big way. While there are a number of artists who break and achieve widespread popularity every year, Blake is particularly important for one reason: where he comes from musically. His past releases have been grounded in the aesthetic of, for lack of a better term, Post-Dubstep, a semi-ambiguous, relatively recent mutation of Dubstep. Dubstep itself has been making great strides in terms of recognition and popularity over the last few years. However, in North America that popularity has been reserved for a specific style of Dubstep, one that’s much more focused on chainsaw-synth lines and creating a loud, aggressive party atmosphere; Post-Dubstep makes much softer, more melodic use of Dubstep elements. The disproportionate amount of recognition that the former sound gets often leads to frustrating misunderstandings and arguments between fans of Dubstep in the broader sense and those who’ve only been exposed to the one particular subset of it. James Blake’s debut, self-titled album is not only perfectly placed to bring a lot of due attention to the softer side of the Dubstep sound, it's the first album to really do so.

One of the reasons his album will be able to do that is that it’s not solely grounded in a Dubstep aesthetic; it also fuses elements of R&B, Soul and Pop music. On the whole it represents a much more singer-songwriter approach to writing music than his past releases. For example, this is the first time he uses real vocals (his own) instead of sampled vocals in his productions. His reliance on piano as a main musical element also helps in making this album easily accessible for ears that are less accustomed to electronic dance music. The extent to which common elements of electronic dance music appear in each song can vary greatly from one to another, creating a diverse album sure to appeal to broad tastes. Songs like “Lindisfarne I”, “Lindisfarne II” and “Give Me My Month” are predominantly vocal, non-electronic pieces, while “I Never Learnt To Share”, “Limit To Your Love” and “I Mind” can push the electronic dance music elements to devastating effect. Personally, the latter are my favourites, a fact that reflects my natural disposition towards dance music.

Unfortunately, I felt there was an imbalance between the two degrees that wasn't flattering to the softer tracks. “Lindisfarne I”, for example, feels particularly flat to me right after “I Never Learned To Share”, it’s predecessor on the album. However, that might simply result from the fact that I’m less accustomed to listening to primarily vocal music. Nevertheless, that imbalance is at the heart of my biggest gripe with the album; while some songs are breathtaking, others, though fewer in comparison, are equally underwhelming. The lesser songs might not disappoint me as much if it wasn’t for the high expectations that the first three songs on the album produce.

That isn’t to say that the album feels inconsistent; James Blake’s clear, frankly beautiful voice and the album’s unified mood do an excellent job of creating a cohesive work. The essence of that mood comes from Blake’s talent for creating powerfully emotional spaces. I say spaces because that’s really what his songs feel like: vast, cavernous worlds. It’s a feeling that’s created by both the echoing sounds he uses and the depth of emotion his voice communicates. Likewise, his skillful use of dramatic, sharp silences and his minimal approach to composition give the listener a feeling of there being something bubbling under the surface of the song. Nothing in this album ever feels dry; every song feels uniquely Blake. It’s an environment I’m more than happy to sit and bask in for a few full rotations of the album.

Admittedly, there’s no guarantee that James Blake will see the same kind of popularity here that he’s begun receiving in the UK and Europe. North Americans on the whole are notoriously slow at adopting the same musical tastes as our cross-Atlantic friends. Yet even if James Blake fails to break into the market here, it’s sure to spark a surge in imitators, one of which could make the leap over to our shores. In the mean time, consider this review my attempt at introducing as many people as I can to a sublime album that I sincerely believe will go down as a turning point for the worlds of Dubstep and bass music.

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