James blake8/31/2023 ![]() Released on his own label, ATLAS, the highly experimental, self-titled debut which followed expanded on that single’s bold new direction. A cover of a ballad by Canadian singer Feist, it placed Blake’s raw, unadorned vocals centre stage among a genre-defying mix of spare piano lines and deep bass wobbles. So enamoured were Pitchfork that they took the unusual step of collectively hailing three EPs ( The Bells Sketch, CMYK and Klavierwerke) as their eighth favourite album of the year.īlake had been dropping hints of an album based chiefly on piano and voice, though the radical stylistic departure of its preceding single, ‘Limit To Your Love’, still shocked many. That achievement was recognised come award season, as he was nominated for the BBC’s Sound Of 2011 accolade, made runner-up at the Brit Awards Critics’ Choice, and was awarded Track Of The Year for ‘CMYK’ at Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards. It was a collection as unsettling as it was memorable.Ī remarkable run of releases, the three EPs gained Blake international recognition as one of electronic music’s most innovative producers. September’s Klavierwerke EP pushed those innovations, interpolating manipulated samples of Blake’s disembodied vocals with spare piano refrains and handclaps accompanied by hisses, pops, crackles and well-placed moments of silence. It was his most innovative work to date and marked the first tentative steps beyond the intrinsic limitations of dubstep. The title track is a masterful blend of R&B vocal loops (some obvious, others warped beyond recognition) with icy cold electronica. He released his second EP in May, the 90s-soul-sampling CMYK. The former established his signature style of crisp, polyrhythmic beats, woozy synths and low-slung bass the latter was embellished with Blake’s own distorted and pitched-up vocals. A joint project with Airhead, the dense and minimal ‘Pembroke’ was followed by a debut EP, The Bells Sketch. The following year saw a flurry of new releases, with each developing Blake’s sound further. The track became a favourite of tastemaker DJ Gilles Peterson, who gave it repeated airplay on his BBC Radio 1 show. ‘Air & Lack Thereof’ was a bass-heavy head-nodder whose inventive melodies, clipped beats and treated vocals invested the genre with a fresh dynamic. In 2009, Blake began his recording career with a well-received remix of Untold’s dubstep stomper ‘Stop What You’re Doing’, though it was his first solo 12”, released later that year, which caught notice beyond the dubstep crowd. Feeling his way into the music industry, he joined up with electronica duo Mount Kimbie’s live set up as a keyboardist and back-up vocalist. At a club there, Blake discovered dubstep and became obsessed with the genre, and quickly began organising and promoting nights while creating his own compositions at home. He studied Popular Music at Goldsmiths College in south London, though it was a night out with friends in Brixton in 2007 which determined his ultimate musical direction. ![]() As the son of James Litherland, a veteran session musician best known for a stint in 70s jazz-rock band Colosseum, Blake was born into a musical family and was classically trained on the piano from an early age. Perhaps more astonishingly, he has done so without pandering to public tastes: a tribute to a remarkable single-mindedness, as well as proof of his ever-increasing influence on the music world.īorn James Blake Litherland, on 26 September 1988, he was raised in the north London borough of Enfield. One of electronic music’s most consistently innovate artists, singer, songwriter and pianist James Blake’s career has taken him on a remarkable journey from humble beginnings as a bedroom dubstep producer to a place at the very pinnacle of pop music, with a guest appearance on Beyoncé’s album Lemonade. ![]()
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