Live Act and Innovation of the Year - James Blake

As I was harping on about The Vaccines, a good friend of mine was harping on about James Blake. I thought the Limit to Your Love cover was pretty cool but I’ve never really “got” the dubstep thing so when James Blake was labelled so I rather closed-mindedly gave him a wide berth. Considering some of the drum n bass and dance stuff said good friend had been getting into as of late I didn’t quite believe him when he told me “James Blake is the best debut you’ll hear all year”. He told me this on the same day The Vaccines record came out, so why did he think I’d listen? 

I googled The Wilhelm Scream and couldn’t believe what my ears were hearing. What was this soothing, reverbed, auto-tuned sound in my head? Not before now could the word soothing appear in the same sentence as reverbed and auto-tuned, not in my world anyway. There was a groove to this mismatched beat and a vocal chimed in, something about dreaming and falling. An explosion every now and then; how a drop in a river might sound or the big Japanese GONG interrupting a silence. It built above and beyond the smooth groove but without reaching breaking point. Such. A. Tease.

I mean, what? Does any of that make sense to you?! A new genre had been created before my eyes unnoticed, a whole new door to music wide open. I resisted researching more choosing instead to wait for the album as a whole, whenever that purchase might be made. The purchase kept getting pushed back as other more eagerly awaited titles were released but I caved when an insistent Bethan thrust her copy of the album in my face. “You’ll love it, you’ll really really love it. I put it on when I go to sleep at night”, she told me. I played it one day when alone in my room completing menial tasks on my laptop. The first song Unluck played and my first thought was “What is this monstrosity to music? The sounds don’t fit together. This is…uncomfortable to listen to”. I couldn’t get the song to piece together in my head as anything close to melodic let alone good. The song was jagged and uneven and I sat here on my bed, as I am now, confused and unsure of what to do with myself. And then that dubstep bit near the end comes in…I couldn’t concentrate on what I was doing.

And so the record continued, some songs following the same pattern, others different. To me the Lindisfarnes couldn’t be more Bon Iver if they tried. Was Give Me My Month a piano ballad or merely an auto-tuned jumpy vocal? Did Why Don’t You Call Me? make the album sensitive? All in all, the album really bothered me. It goes back to that uncomfortable feeling while listening to it. It’s not that the music was bad, just I couldn’t find a place for it in my head. In hindsight I think in those first few listens I simply didn’t get it. Like I said, there was nothing like this or similar in my music library. Sure I’ve got all the Bon Iver stuff but nothing to show for the heavy dubstep and electronic influences. Maybe all I needed was to open my mind a little more and make space for these sounds in my head. They weren’t bad after all just…different. This thought continued to aggravate me and maybe a little too much - you can’t dance to it, you can’t sing along, what the hell are you supposed to do? I couldn’t grasp the idea Bethan gave of playing it as you sleep, it would lead me to anything but.

I gave up on the album for a time. Bethan kept telling me how brilliant it was and how much she loved his CYMK ep, but still I struggled to “get it”. Intrigued though I was, I couldn’t resist the chance of seeing this music live. Just how would it be done? There weren’t many instruments in these songs, no guitars or banjos or organs to be found as with obsessions of mine the previous year - Arcade Fire and Mumford and Sons - so how would young James pull it off? I imagined it would be either magnificently brilliant or a total flop. Some types of music can’t convey live what they do on record while some are made to be heard this way. I’d never really seen the point of seeing drum n bass or dance music “live” because I could press play on a CD in my bedroom, why pay to see a DJ do the same thing on a computer? I knew there was a lot more to James’ music than this – layers and voices and hopefully a drum-kit (a live act should always have a drum-kit) and I was intrigued more than anything to see how he’d do it, and if he could pull it off.

My oh my. Well. Music has made me feel many emotions but I’m not sure I ever expected a piece of music to…turn me on the way that James Blake gig did. Tuesday 14^th June. Koko, Camden. I’ve not felt that way at another gig since, James Blake or otherwise. I guess I was so…taken aback by it, by the music. I wasn’t expecting to like it so much, you know? I’ve done folk, I’ve done punk, psychedelic rock and your best noughties indie but I’ve never much delved into anything with a hint of drum n bass or even hip-hop. It’s just not me. This here artist seemed to take the tricks and beats and effects of dubstep and put it to the tune of the best Bon Iver, you know, the guy who bares his soul to music. Two such things are polar opposites in my world, like two strangers coming together. Something new is created but a familiar sensation is felt…it’s like sleeping with a new partner for the first time.

‘I Never Learnt to Share’ and its repeating My brother and my sister don’t speak to me but I don’t blame them builds and drops like your best Chase and Status but with all the subtlety and sensitivity missing from dubstep, filling the room with just as much noise and excitement. And we were up on the top balcony, how must that have felt in the front row?? “I found her, redcoat, yeah I found her”. That song Bethan had recommended me from the start, ‘CYMK’, was the one that did it for me. My favourite part of James Blake is probably his vocal and everything he can do with it yet my favourite live song is the one on which he barely sings at all, instead choosing to sample a simple line from Kelis’ ‘Caught Out There (Hate You So Much Right Now)’ to jumble and repeat, jumble and repeat.  I’d never closed my eyes to dance before but my entire body was moving and I willed this groove to never end. If I was in male company I’d have had him there and then.

When looking for a mate it’s natural to seek out the ones seemingly well equipped to protect and to hunt and the easiness on the eye of the aesthetically appealing never goes amiss but one essential I feel is too often overlooked in the animal kingdom is said potential mate’s taste in music. We can’t all be extras on The Lion King but it’s always worth enquiring about these things. Another time James Blake was big for me this year was a few months ago when I used to album to woo. Yes, you heard me. Woo. The wooing failed, sadly, but not because of James Blake - that was the best part. There was a certain attractive guy who came into my work quite a lot and we chatted and flirted on occasion. As soon as he uttered the words “Glasvegas are a band I’d like to see live” I knew I had to make him mine. I kept hoping he’d ask me out but he never did so as I was gradually building up the courage to ask him, something I hadn’t done before in my inexperienced world of dating, one day out of nowhere I offered to make him a CD.

It’s not that James Blake was a hugely guarded secret or anything what with the on-going genre-busting buzz and Sound of 2011 nod but I felt so cool bragging about him to someone who knew less about music than I did, as if talking about James Blake made me knowledgeable and impressive.
 “You know who I really like at the moment? James Blake”
“I’ve not heard of him, what’s he like?”
“An absurd but brilliant mix of Bon Iver and dubstep. Sounds like it wouldn’t work but it really really does”.
“Oh right, well I like Bon Iver. Maybe I should look him up”
“I could copy you the CD if you like?” …
“Yeah? I’d like that”

And so I went to all this effort of burning a CD, choosing just the right non-bitmapped version of the album cover from Google, printing it and cutting it to just the right size, hand-writing the track listing, leaving a small corny note inside reading “Everyone needs a bit of James Blake in their lives, Emily x”. He freaking loved it when I gave it to him like it was the best gift he’d ever received. We did go out after that and played the album in his car on the way home but our love was not meant to be. I couldn’t have done that with any other record. There aren’t any other CDs in my collection so out there and different that I would feel cool enough recommending to someone I’m trying to impress. This tale also goes some way to prove, thank god, the mixtape isn’t dead.

My second night spent with James Blake was Sunday 17^th July. He kept me up way past my bedtime and most of the night. The Dry the River boys just weren’t enough and after having my fun with Brett Anderson, James Blake was the one taking me to dizzy heights in the closing hours of my Latitude festival this year. Concluding the festival well after the other acts had finished was none other than James Blake playing on the tiny Lake Stage, not dissimilar and no bigger than your average BBC Introducing. The place was rammed of course but the speakers loud and powerful and though I couldn’t see James himself I could see all the bright colours and lights reflected on top of the stage. This gig was a wonderful way to end my favourite festival this Summer, James performed as beautifully as the first time, the event only seeming more whimsical outside in a park with sprayed water and lights reflected on the nearby lake.

He’s just an act you’re not going to forget in a hurry. It was the tough choice of many a radiohead and (best costume by far) ghost of Amy Winehouse come Isle of Wight’s Bestival when clash of the indie titans came when James Blake was pitted against The Maccabees on the Main Stage on Sunday afternoon. “Guys I know it’s Maccabees but you’ve gotta come for James Blake, believe me, please!” I tried telling all my friends and they compromised opting with a half and half set, James first. After a surprisingly joyful and enigmatic Kelis gig I bounded towards the Big Top, eager for a prime spot at James Blake and I strolled straight to the barrier as the tent emptied after the previous act. Bon magnifique, a ledge to rest on would be perfect for the next forty minutes of pretty much standing still. I got talking to the guy next to me, he was very friendly and also on his own. We talked about festivals, photography and all sorts but of course before long conversation turned to James Blake.  He’s a game changer, you know? This guy had not seen him live and was dubious by the album but intrigued, the reason he stood there that day. “I felt the same but it’s all about the live act. You’ll never turn back”.

The brute force of that gig was phenomenal.  Bass travels, in case you didn’t know, and if I’d have been anywhere near the back I’d have seen the vibrating ground bouncing people in from all outer reaches of the tent. This was insane. I was grooving and bobbing my head like no tomorrow and I could feel the bass physically blowing me away. Macca-what? The classic half set is a common solution at these events but no way was I leaving this mind-dissolving genius for, let’s be honest, just good indie out on the main stage (sorry Maccabees, ‘Pelican’ is a god send, you’re just not as darn brilliant as this guy). I met up with Tor and Ellie afterwards, long-serving Maccabees fans and one time listener of the ‘Limit to Your Love’ cover and even they returned to the Big Top after one Maccabees song realising what missing the second half of James Blake’s set would do to them. That’s the kinda music this guy makes.

I could go on you know. He played in London again at the end of November and I dragged more friends with me this time. It was the most hip-hop and least Bon Iver time I’d seen James (he shakes it up at every gig and it’s always brilliant) but it was still a gig to remember. Josh said it’s not the kind of music he expected me to like. It’s not the kind of music I’d expect myself to like but sometimes these things are cosmic. You just can’t help it.

He’s just sitting there twisting nobs and pressing buttons at the end of the day. It goes against everything I believe in. Maybe that’s why I find him so addictive. The bewilderment at loving him makes me want to that much more.

(Source: Flickr / emilyrowan)