8. James Blake – ‘James Blake’ [Polydor]
‘To me, James Blake is post-dub step – his work quite simply defines this fantastically modern, innovative and interesting genre. Throughout this eponymous album, Blake presents the listener with the most simple, sparse and cold music, delicately meshed together to create a heavy, throbbing presence unlike anything created before. Tracks often contain simple piano parts, vocals, and dark, throbbing ambient backing, creating a stark and haunting soundscape. Understandably, the production throughout Blake’s debut is necessarily superb – heavy effects are laid throughout the record serving to increase the sombre, leaden atmosphere, with darkly distorted, yet disconcertingly frail vocals the typical focal point.
However, this is not an easy listen. The tracks often focus on a distinct lack of sound, of creating music with the least amount of dynamism or timbres, and there is also a bleak realism to Blake’s work here which is brilliantly unsettling. Hyped hugely by the industry, the album failed to do as well as expected commercially. But this is not a pop record. It is instead a staggeringly good education in how music is changing. Blake’s sound here is continually unique, challenging and thought provoking. – Maria Turauskis