James Blake knows how to ring in the New Year. On the first second of the title track of his latest EP Love What Happened Here, a rising organ note bursts through the silence and jubilantly announces his most engaging electronic track yet.
Blake’s had an incredible run in the past year and a half. His self-titled debut from early 2011 lived up to the hype and critical acclaim he’d garnered with his early EPs and was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize, a prestigious British distinction that generally chooses more relevant figures than the Grammys.
But James Blake represented a fairly conservative project for the young artist; a stripped down singer-songwriter-type album that featured his impressive voice prominently. The album was situated in an electronic backdrop, with tinges of underground London sound, but remained still familiar—something like a brooding, reticent cousin to the xx. But there are many faces to James Blake. Love What Happened Here reverts to a playful take on “experimental.” The opening cut slices and sprinkles Blake’s vocals throughout a gorgeous, weird kind of party song—one more apt for card games than dancing.
“At Birth” sounds like a collaboration between the dubstep of Burial and hypnagogic techno of the Field. The product rests between these artists’ aesthetic extremes, mesmerizing in the sense of shoe-gazing more than stargazing.
“Curbside” features a ponderous, distended vocal sample wanders around with occasional tribal vibes and plumes of saxophone. In its infinitely weird, left-field character, “Curbside” recalls Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew.
In just 15 minutes, Blake demonstrates his amazing versatility—how he appealed to NPR types, music critics, and the under-21 crowd alike. This is postmodern music: constantly hinting at different iterations of a sound, resisting the fixity of identity.
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