Beginner’s Guide to the Subtle Star James Blake

James Blake has quite a year approaching. He’s currently completing his European tour with Kendrick Lamar, who he helped to produce the new Black Panther soundtrack, and working on a new album which is expected to drop within the next few months. In 2017 he helped produce and was featured on some of the biggest albums to drop that year, ranging from Frank Ocean’s Blond (2016) to Beyonce’s Lemonade (2016). Recently, bonus tracks were released for Jay Z’s 4:44 (2017) in which James was featured on “MaNyfaCedGod”. This is all just in the past year.

Despite working with many well known artists, James Blake’s a relatively elusive figure in the music world. Not many mainstream listeners know about him or his music, which he’s not too upset about. If you’re new to Mr. Blake’s music or just hearing about him now, you are not alone. We’re here to give you the full breakdown of the artist known as James Blake.

James Blake is an English ‘electronic’ music artist and producer who has been making music since the early 2010’s. He released his LP Air and Lack Thereof (2009), a part of the Hemlock label, which set off a string of successful EP’s on the BBC airwaves. His self-titled debut album, James Blake (2011), garnered national attention [for its…], and his single “Limit to Your Love” was nominated for that year’s Mercury prize. What followed over the next years were a series of critical albums that built his sound and musical presence in the musical world: Enough Thunder (2011), Overgrown (2013), and The Colour in Anything (2016).

The reason for the quotes around ‘electronic’ is because this is the word I find  looking up his name on Google–not the language I would use to describe him. If you’re expecting some groove and dance beats, you might be in the wrong place. He doesn’t sound like Flume or The Chainsmokers, yet they fall into the same category because of the approach and instrumentation they use. James’ use of high-hats, electronic drum beats, infectious grooves, and dubstep-inspired progressions are similar in theory to the predominant style of electronic music today. However, those elements are part of the much larger, convoluted puzzle of his own sound. Loops, reverse-loops, melting synths, highly auto tuned vocals, and clicking beats are just a few of James’ tools to push the notion of electronic to the boundaries of experimentation. He takes electronica textures and atmospheres to new lengths. Trailblazing his own style of ambient intertwined with soul and electronica, he has redefined what electronic means for artists.

Similar to the complexity of Jamie xx and the soulful minimalism of Frank Ocean, James Blake  focuses on the relationship between electronica and classic piano, drawing inspiration from down-tempo EDM to create soulful ballads over looped drum beats and hollow piano chords. Many categorize his style as ‘post-dubstep,’ a movement that approaches the usual high-paced BPM but and slows it to a downtempo,skeletal structure. Singles like “Limit To Your Love” and “Unluck” fall under this category due to the sparse instrumentation and slow BPM. However, he’s versatile and able to switch to different pacing of his music while maintaining that distinct style. “Life Round Here” (featuring Chance the Rapper) and “200 Press” off of his LP maintain high tempos that could make a few listeners move their feet. He’s quick to adjust but able to maintain his core presence. If you’re new, here are the essential tracks for the beginning ear to James Blake:

5: ”Falls Creek Boys Choir” Ft. Bon Iver

Considered a sleeper hit, this track is one of the first collaborations James had done, and with a songwriter like Bon Iver, it’s an indie-listener’s dream. A lush sound of reverse analog tracks, digitized vocals, and cryptic lyrics, it’s a piece that is beautiful and strange in the best way possible.

4: “Limit to Your Love”

This ethereal track is one of James’ most soul-inspired singles. It’s warm and hollow like a ring of fire. The haunting vocals live in a space of emptiness, save for a few piano chords. It invokes images of frozen water and unfulfilled love. Halfway through, you get a wubbing, throbbing sub bass that melts your whole body. The track’s beautiful minimalism makes it an essential in his discography.

3: “The Wilhelm Scream”

One of James’ most dissonant singles, it is one of the top picks for new listeners because of its soulful R&B elements blended with electric bleeps and buzzing synths. It somehow alternates between  tension and a release for the listener that balances multiple dissonant sonic elements. If you like The xx’s new album, I See You, the sound of dissonance and electric progression fused with dance-like beats and heartfelt melodies, then this track is for you.

2: “My Willing Heart”

Apparently Natalie Portman is a James Blake fan, because she starred in the music video for this song featuring her pregnant body swimming gracefully in gray light over water. His quivering, digitized voice begins with the lyrics, “First time your name was used, it was beauty and I knew,” and it sets the overarching tone of the song from the start. Unfolding gracefully with rising piano chords and melancholic drum tones, the song is one of his most soulful piano ballads to grace the top charts, and invokes the digitized heart that James keeps close at all times to melt with the listener.

1: “Retrograde”

Ah, “Retrograde”, you beautiful thing. It’s a quintessential track because of the song’s popularity in underground music culture. It’s been featured on the soundtrack for Tales of the Borderlands, helped James beat out Bowie for the Mercury Prize from his album Overgrown, and helped him top the British sound charts–pretty impressive for a guy who doesn’t go out too much. It’s a triumphant track about the frustration of love and passion, which is ironic, considering he wrote it at 4am in a frustrated creative binge. Rather than letting his lyrics do all the work, he lets the instruments seep out his anger with whatever he was upset about. Bleeding synths, hollow beats, and lonely piano chords all come together to create this beautiful, pulsing track that beckons you to enter and listen to him.

James is a mysterious creature. His musical presence is as gloomy and stark as it is impressive and kept under wraps. He couldn’t have spoken on his relation to the singer-spotlight better than the title-track “Overgrown”: “I don’t wanna be a star, But a stone on the shore, Long door, frame the wall, When everything’s overgrown”. James seems to inhabit (or at least did before the Pitchfork’s interview about The Colour in Anything) a world of lonerism and melancholic longing for a lost love. He made a majority of his debut LP’s in his own bedroom and has spoke in multiple interviews about his preference for privacy over the spotlight. This sentiment can be heard in nearly every one of his songs. The abstract, bleak, and subdued, pushed forward by surging electronica, are embodied in the atoms of his music.

But like most things morose, there is a beauty that can’t be explained in his music. His songs are intimate and beautifully blue. They’re perfect for rainy days, break ups, or just wanting to feel some good synths. James Blake deserves a listen, even if you’re only remotely curious.

Written by Jonah Thedorff

Photo by Miles O’Brien-Schridde