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Review Summary: A return to Blake's uncanny desire for weird and spastic, the crooner will be missed . . . for now. James Blake became a household name for UK bass music and post-dubstep in 2011, mostly due to his self-titled full-length album and the wealth of attention it received. But many people who advocated him and that album probably overlooked his series of comparatively unusual EPs he released in late 2010. Back then, the UK DJ had a knack for bleeps, bloops, and loops that reached to infinity. Only on James Blake--and maybe the Klavierwerke EP--did he start to show his truly soulful and traditional side, much to the world’s appreciation.
His newest EP, Love What Happened Here, finds him once again stretching across a sea of more clicks, clacks and swirls of beats via the likes of Burial, Mount Kimbie and Joy Orbison. Overall, the EP feels like a return to his experimentation. In retrospect, it makes his self-titled LP feel more like a detour than an actual destination. Blake is obviously enjoying himself, and it makes you wonder: is this really what he wanted to do in the first place? Maybe the soulful James Blake we know and love is only the half of it.
The title track is probably the most accessible of the three. A ripped version of it has been out for nearly a year now, but it feels good to have a final version in proper EP form. Beginning with a startling synth and proceeding with staccato drum machines, Blake traverses a song of audio clips and 2-step organs that seem to continue to spin out of control by the end of the song.
The other two tracks, “At Birth” and “Curbside,” work from a different angle. "At Birth," for example, saunters on with fuzzy beats and echoes of voices, which dip in and out of each other until they begin to feel like a melting pot of cries and ecstasy. If he was a crooner before, he’s a rager now.
Even more than “At Birth,” “Curbside” takes Blake into territory he’s rarely step foot in. It’s like a grungy take on jazz and hip hop, with horns and saxophone noises slashed apart and a deep timpani that barely sounds tuned. On this track, Blake uses samples from the high pitched California rapper Quasimoto. Perhaps Blake’s affinity for gospel and soul stretches well into hip-hop, too.
Love What Happened Here is a dizzying affair. Blake doesn’t stick to one aspect of his stock of musical inspirations, and prefers unending spirals of sound over the smooth reflection of his keyboards and commanding voice. There’s no doubt that Blake has been pushing boundaries since day one, and this EP takes that push into overdrive once again. More experimentation from the likes of these three tracks would certainly be welcome on Blake’s next full-length release, whenever it may come. But if you’re the type of person who simply gets sick from the dizzying affair that this EP is, then I couldn’t really blame you for that either.
| other reviews of this album |
Deviant. STAFF (3.5)
James Blake rounds out a whirlwind year with a much more muted statement, a slightly disjointed but ...
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post-dubstep
No such thing, sorry
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Thought that might happen. But I've seen enough people vouch for it, that I'm willing to go along . . .
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Like who, the artists? Or Pitchfork?
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but he didn't sample Quas
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
@Dev lull...
I know lots of other music critics/reviewers.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH_2apOP4WM
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I know what you're referring to, but Blake didn't sample Quas himself, they just happened to use the same sample
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I know lots of other music critics/reviewers.
So no one who really knows what they're talking about then? Right, okay
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
@TheReverend, from what? Quasi sampled a LOT of people on Return of the Loop Digga, but Blake sampled Quasi.
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Hahaha, Deviant. Why must you do this every opportunity you get? James Blake may not call himself post-dubstep, but other people do. And in the end, that's all that matters.
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first track is good, second track is pretty good, third track isnt very good
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
@TheRev,
You're thinking of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtM3_FtPVXI
Which, yes, Quasi sampled on "Return of the Loop Digga"
But Blake sampled Quasi's sample . . . hence the "yowls"
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Hahaha, Deviant. Why must you do this every opportunity you get? James Blake may not call himself post-dubstep, but other people do. And in the end, that's all that matters.
Actually, all that matters is the music. But I ask this everytime because I'm interested to see why people think it's something that its not. I've been listening to this genre for a long time now, so when someone comes along and says "this is something else", my question is "why?". And the answer always ends up being that a bunch of people who apparently don't understand the UK electronic scene at the moment are making up ways to try and understand it
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
@Dev, I agree that the music is all that matters. Fuck sub-genres and labeling. But we have to
categorize, and if a majority comes to a consensus on a categorization then what does it matter if I
follow that? If you don't, you don't. If you do, you do. And although you may not like the term "post-
dubstep," you probably knew what I meant when I said it.
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But we have to categorize,
Well actually you don't, but why is it apparently easier to come up with something new and then possibly have to spend time explaining to people what is "post...." and what isn't, when it's so much simpler to say "This is dubstep. Some if it sounds like ____ and some of it sounds like ____". Because now you have artists previously categorized as dubstep who are now being referred to as post dubstep not because of a change in their sound, but because someone came up with the term and decided that said artist fell within the parameters they decided on. Just look at Burial for an example.
and if a majority comes to a consensus on a categorization then what does it matter if I follow that?
I think you'll find your majority is actually a minority. Again, it's all just dubstep at the end of the day, experimentation within a genre isn't grounds for something new. Hell, even Kuedo made the statement that anyone with any common sense would shriek at the term
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
@Dev, But then there's Datsik and Skrillex. Maybe they're all "dubstep," but wouldn't you say James
Blake is radically different?
Think about it in terms of science. How many different categories of sub-species do we know about? How
many different names do we have for them? Isn't it better to be defining and specific, rather than
vague and simplified?
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Skrillex does not sound like James Blake. Just like Darkthrone doesn't sound like Deathspell Omega.
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Well, probably a bad analogy for you, but you might still get the idea.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Is that for me? Cause . . . I know. That's the point I'm trying to make.
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@Dev, But then there's Datsik and Skrillex. Maybe they're all "dubstep," but wouldn't you say James Blake is radically different?
Your example really isn't going to work for the simple fact that the sound that Datsik and Skrillex and all the other brostep producers make came around a long time after dubstep was already established, so if anything going on terminology alone they should technically be called post dubstep artists. But all they do is take the idea of the genre and amplify it into a much aggressive state. Where instead of having bass as a constant support system it's now become the driving force and crux of their particular style of dubstep
Think about it in terms of science. How many different categories of sub-species do we know about? How many different names do we have for them? Isn't it better to be defining and specific, rather than vague and simplified?
Except this isn't science. And calling this and that dubstep is far from being vague, when all the artists currently referred to as such aren't making radically different music. All the traits of the genre are readily apparent within Blake's, Kimbie's, and any other "post-dubsteppers" you might want to try and throw my way, they're just approaching it in a slightly different fashion.
Look at Converge and As I lay Dying; both are considered metalcore, and yet both approach that template in radically different ways. One plays a more hardcore style, and the other is rooted more in metal. It's the same thing here, different means still arriving at the same end
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