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James Blake Performing Live At Titan Floor, Namba Hatch In 2011
James Blake will be pulling double duty on the first day of the Fuji Rock Festival. He’s scheduled to headline the fest’s White Stage and he’s also been penciled in for a DJ set that Friday. This isn’t just a move to cram in as much time with the English artist as Fuji Rock can, but rather a necessary addition to showcase all of Blake’s sides. Most musicians become buzzed-about entities because they hit upon a specific sound and run with it – Blake became a critical darling because he has darted from style to style, shifting his sonic approach with almost every release.
Blake began recording music as a university student in 2009, his early recordings leaning towards the pre-Skrillex type of dubstep popular in England at the time. He started picking up more attention in his home country, grabbing the attention of BBC1 DJs. He continued creating dance-centric music up until the middle of 2010, cresting with the CMYK EP. That release, his first to get widespread critical love, remained focused on wobbly dubstep, highlighted by the Aaliyah-sampling title track. Blake became a bit of a rising star in the dubstep world.
Yet his follow-up EP, Klavierwerke, tip-toed away from dubstep in favor of minimal electronic compositions. The floor-filling beats of CMYK were replaced by sparse electronics, piano playing and traces of Blake’s actual voice distorted into unrecognizable noises. These additions hinted at where Blake would go on his self-titled debut LP, but none of them could predict the exact direction – his 2011 full-length album highlighted Blake as a singer-songwriter. The advance single laid all these changes – Blake chose to cover Canadian singer Feist’s song “Limit To Your Love,” delivering a piano-driven rendition featuring his voice, mostly unscathed by digital touches. James Blake continued in this vein, finding Blake unafraid to belt over his piano-meets-electronic creations. He made time to include more experimental detours, but he also included something like the melancholy “The Wilhelm Scream,” a cover of a song his father (James Litherland) recorded in the 1970’s. The original was a piece of smooth soft rock, but in Blake’s hands it mutated into a lonely number that builds up to dizzying climax. The album received high marks from the press and landed on many 2010 year-end lists.
Since then, Blake has continued covering female singer-songwriters, including one of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case Of You.” On the late-2011 EP Enough Thunder, Blake teamed up with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver for the song “Fall Creek Boys Choir.” He has had a few scattered releases since, but nothing major so far in 2012.
His two sets at Fuji Rock offer complimenting views into the finicky world of James Blake. His live shows post James Blake have featured a full-band setup, allowing him to flesh out his singer-songwriter moments into the sort of stuff capable of working at a huge summer festival. His DJ set, though, should highlight his electronic roots and offer a snapshot of early Blake, the guy throwing his hat into the always-crowded UK bass scene. It might end up being a busy Friday for Blake, but an essential one.
Photo by Hiroshi Maeda courtesy Smashing Mag.
