Upcoming Releases - James Blake

There's a lot to be said about James Blake, a young musician out of London who has helped change the face of dubstep and electronic music within the last two years. His music is both peerless and constantly changing. He has already proven himself to be a formidable artist for years to come in the very short time he has been releasing music.

While still at school in London, Blake released the 12" single "Air & Lack Theirof" in July of '09. It became a favorite of BBC 1 Radio's own Giles Peterson. Using obscure and obfuscated samples to create melodies and phrases out of different snippets, his music already bore little resemblance to anything before it.

Air & Lack Thereof

In March 2010, Blake released his first extended play entitled The Bells Sketch. Songs like the title track continued his work at digital concoctions of compressed and glitched out samples and sounds that rarely found their way into music.

The Bells Sketch

A third 12" vinyl was released in May 2010. This time around, Blake further refurbished his increasingly lush and colorful sound with vocal samples reminiscent of artists like Burial on his CMYK EP. It was picked up by BBC 1 Radio DJ Nick Grimshaw as the Record of the Week, and received play from various other DJs.

CMYK

Blake then released his latest EP, Klavierwerke, in September. The release hinted more at a future in different parameters than what Blake had previously explored. Pianos and slow moving songs, like "I Only Know (What I Know Now)", were introduced, suggesting a completely different approach to his newer material.

Klavierwerke

Before Blake drops his self titled debut on February 7th, 2010, we leave you with the first single from the album. "Limit To Your Love", which already went to #39 on the UK Singles Chart, is unlike anything he has released before. It's a cover of a Feist song that Blake actually sings on, and it suggests that he has no fear of alienating his followers to produce the music he wants to make.

Limit To Your Love

Now you can check out our review of the album.

Be sure to purchase a copy of James Blake this February.

And to catch James Blake on tour this year:

Friday February 4th @ Borderline in London, UK

Monday February 7th @ Rough Trade East in London, UK

Thursday February 10th @ St. Pancras Old Church in London, UK

Thursday February 17th @ L'Antipode in Rennes, France

Saturday February 19th @ Club Silo in Leuven, Belgium

Wednesday February 23rd @ The Thekla in Bristol, UK

Friday February 25th @ The City Arts & Music Project in London, UK

Saturday February 26th @ Band on the Wall in Manchester, UK

Sunday February 27th @ Nice 'n Sleazy in Glasgow, UK

Wednesday March 2nd @ Melkweg, Paradiso & NlMk in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Friday March 4th @ Melkweg in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Wednesday March 16th @ SXSW in Austin, TX

Thursday March 24th @ St. Pancras Old Church in London, UK

Braids - Native Speaker (2011)

There's a video floating around on Youtube where an interviewer asks Braids "What kind of sound are you trying to achieve?" Band mate Raphaelle Standelle-Preston quickly responds "I really want it to sound like damp hair, not like wet water or anything, but hair that's really like you know like (Raphaelle at this point starts stroking her hair, trying to convey what her words cannot) you know how your hair gets when it's like really wet and then it kinda like goes into little strands and stuff?". No Raphaelle, I can't say I do know what you mean. Maybe if I had longer hair? In fact, Raphaelle, on my first listen (before watching this interview) the image of damp hair did not cross my mind even once. So in this regard Braid's Native Speaker is an absolute an utter failure.

The album does succeed in other areas, though. However, in trying to think about how this album succeeds (and how it doesn't in some places) I found myself in the same predicament as Raphaelle, groping around for half-assed metaphors that describe the feeling the album evokes. So instead of burdening the reader with these, I’ll just describe the album on more sonic terms.

Native Speaker is best classified as a Dream Pop or maybe Neo-Psychedelic album. It sounds, in fact, a lot like Animal Collective’s Meriwether Post Pavilion in some parts, except with a female singer and with a slightly less layered and more focused sound. So it's certainly not a new sound. But it is a distinctive sound.

The album is at its best when it tames these wild, bubbling, Psychedelic textures into a focused hook. “Plath Heart” is a great example of this, and one of the album’s standouts; a track, which despite its psychedelic feel, has all the makings of a pop song. The album’s opener, “Lemonade” is another standout. It succeeds in being not only melodically pleasing and catchy, but also atmospheric. Something that you could listen to on a warm summer day, while you drive around spitting cherry pits out your 1991 Toyota Camry (shit, that’s not much better than damp hair is it?), and from then on forever associate with cherry pits and the sun baked hood of your 1991 Toyota Camry. To me, this is what Dream Pop should sound like at its best. It’s this sort of rich, often nostalgic imagery that distances Dream Pop from just Pop.

Unfortunately, Native Speaker doesn’t consistently succeed in evoking this feeling. Why not? Well this is the point in the review where I feel like desperately stroking my hair. Most of the songs have a great, bubbly texture to them, but it wears a bit thin as the album goes on. I guess you could say the hair starts to dry up. Parts that could sound potentially beautiful to some sound to me like a bunch of hipsters fidgeting around with their instruments in an ecstatic attempt to conjure whatever it is they’re feeling. The title track, for instance, is just flat out boring to me. Sure, the textures and tones work well together, but it never transcends to anything more…it’s just an inoffensive, nice sounding track. And with a genre like Dream Pop, I want more than inoffensive. Dreams can be fascinating. They can contain a rich collection of emotions and images. Often times I dream of worlds I never even consider in waking life, and experience emotions that can be both euphoric and frightening. But these frightening “nightmares”, if you will, are also some of my most interesting dreams. So why does a band like Braids, one clearly with the talent to piece together some great sounding tracks, only seem to focus on the light and airy dreams of frolicking unicorns?


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Minks - By the Hedge (2011)

It may be an album that relives '80s alternative rock memories, and it may contain echoes of shoegaze acts, but does this mean good things for Minks?

Simply, the answer is "Nah". It may sound good in theory and, in fact, has been put into practice several times over and over, but there's something about this album that doesn't sit too well with me. I mean, the composition is there, the lo-fi production component is there too, but for some reason I couldn't really get into it at all. I may feel this way because I've heard this sound ad nauseum and fail to find any semblance of originality. I wouldn't say By the Hedge is original, and it's obviously very derivative, but I don't even think being derivative is a bad thing. I dunno. This issue is actually starting to get on my nerves.

Even if I don't like the album much, though, I'm confident that there is a bunch of stuff on here that a lot of people will find enjoyable, especially if you're one of those types of people that are fond of shoegaze and dream pop. If dreamy guitar textures are what tickles your DICK, then you will have plenty here to keep you going for maybe a month or two. The slight problem with By the Hedge is that many of the tracks start meshing, and by that, I mean that half of it sounds pretty samey and lacks differentiation. You could argue that this is the way it should be, given that the nature of the album is supposed to have a dreamlike atmosphere that you can lose yourself in; not having to pay too much attention to it but, rather, it's something you're meant to just feel. If your sentiment is that way, then I guess I can empathise and say that the album would excel at giving you that experience. This album might really work for you, but for some reason it just doesn't do anything for me.

Overall, I wouldn't say that this album is a profound experience that will make you feel like a better person after listening to it, but I don't even think that was the original intent of the band. I mean, this is Minks, not fuckin' Enya. There's a lot of mood and atmosphere here to keep most fans of dream pop interested and, despite it's flaws, it's still worth at least maybe one listen. I dunno, this album might do a lot for others, but I'm afraid to say that for me, personally, this album just isn't much chop.

5

Cut Copy - Zonoscope (2011)

Cold War Kids - Mine Is Yours (2011)

I didn't have high hopes for this album. Within the first minute, when Nathan Willett starting going OOoOOooooooo I kind of hated the first song. There's something unemotionally safe about the opening track, and sadly, this trend continues throughout the entire album.

It's like driving on a road and knowing every turn; upon hearing this album for the first time a lot of the chord changes or would happen next in the songs are evident before the moment even occurs. There cliches and combinations that everyone's seen before. I had hope with the forth track, titled "Finally Begin" that maybe the album would pick up but my expectations died with "i've got a blackbelt in doubt."

This album does have so more interesting moments though. Sensitive Kid has kind of a cool drum beat, Bulldozer is a pretty good song and the album does sound nice but the problem is, that's all it sounds. It's not offensive, or particularly interesting or catchy, it's just run of the mill indie-rock.

It's hard to get too angry about this album, in the same way it's hard for me to get that excited for it. Honestly, it didn't leave much of an impression on me in anyway. It's safe, and that's the nicest and worst thing I can say about it.

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