Release
Spotlight on Actress & James Blake
Last year, producers like Joy Orbison and Floating Points set the standard for interesting, boundary-pushing yet danceable beats for the post-Dubstep generation and this year, it looks like the mantle has been left to Actress and James Blake. With the former recording his or her album for Damon Albarn’s Honest Jon’s, you can probably guess it’s not such a cut and dry affair, but it is a logical progression for a generation of punters who pioneered artists like Autechre. If this sounds like you, seek this one. The influences (like Prince and 8 bit video games) are easy to pick but the methods with which this person goes about making their music are anything but! In the past I have been critical of artists who shy from the limelight because I feel that now more than ever, artists need a relationship with their fans otherwise there’s no emotional onus on supporting them with a purchase. That said, this one might give a few EDM fans the jollies enough to want to go out and there and make a not-so-unreasonable demand to their local shopkeep. James Blake on the other hand, is a (very) young lad from Britain who chops up some very recognisable vocals (think Kelis, D’Angelo) and puts them in between some dope synths and bottle-tapping style percussive beats all with a very deep edge to it. I’ve never been as stumped on describing a sound as much as I am with this CMYK EP (R&S Records) and that can only be a good thing! If I have to, it’s like an uptempo version of Prefuse 73’s Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives. Seek it out post-haste, this could be 2010’s Hyph Mngo.
