James Blake

[baboon2004]

pls elaborate.... (seems it could be a fair point)

Edit: You also don't have to read it if it irks you so much,. Personally (asnd this is not directed explicitly at James Blake) I conversely find it tedious reading about artists who are supposed to be the future of music, and then upon hearing them realising that I have been utterly duped. Then again, I could just not read the hype.

 

[hucks]

the BNP are at one extreme end of the political spectrum, and similarly james blake makes stuff that is further 'out there' than most in a bass/nuum/dubstep/garage/grime etc context.

but lets end this unpleasant political analogy here pls.

Who is the dubstep EDL? Oh, hang on...

But anyhow - there is a difference between alienating people in art an doing so in politics, surely. The outcomes are incomparable.

Back on topic: I got the ep with Buzzard and Kestrel after reading this thread and the recommendations within. I don't get it at all, and I hope that doesn't make me some sort of twaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

 

[tom lea]

did anyone say he's the future tho? all blackdown, myself and a couple of others said about him was that we're really excited about what he's making.

i see where pangaea's coming from, some of the comments could be taken as smug. like the 'huh' shrug one and the one about the sample, which i'm pretty sure isnt even correct. i guess it's more how they're said then what they're saying.

 

[tom lea]

Back on topic: I got the ep with Buzzard and Kestrel after reading this thread and the recommendations within. I don't get it at all, and I hope that doesn't make me some sort of twaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

i didnt really get with the track after a few listens, but once i listened to it in headphones it just clicked - there's that one melody that ascends <i>so</i> slowly and subtly throughout the track, it's pretty much never out my head.

i love how his rhythms move too, they lurch in weird ways, there's something incredibly morbid about them.

 

[hucks]

i didnt really get with the track after a few listens, but once i listened to it in headphones it just clicked - there's that one melody that ascends <i>so</i> slowly and subtly throughout the track, it's pretty much never out my head.

i love how his rhythms move too, they lurch in weird ways, there's something incredibly morbid about them.

That's cool. I'll stick with it.

 

[Pangaea]

pls elaborate.... (seems it could be a fair point)

I really don't think it needs elaborating upon

Edit: You also don't have to read it if it irks you so much

of course I don't have to read it, but we're all on the internet and if there's a multi-page thread about a producer who's music you've released, it's likely I'm going to. not getting riled up and learning to keep my fingers shut is the way forward though, clearly

 

[baboon2004]

i think the smugness frequently comes from both sides though (ie also from artists/labels who have got a little hype/press attention)

Fair enough, but as with authors, learning not to read criticism/taking it all with a huge pinch of salt is the way not to go mad. Anyways, was simultaneously criticising myself was posting critical remarks on a thread about a producer I happen to think is overhyped, which is a pretty pointless exercise and I should just've left discussion to those for whom his music is important.

 

[Damien]

I always find it funny when I bang on about a producer who's music I love and someone says
'it's hardly anything new though'
or 'It's hardly the future'

the best one is 'it's over-hyped'

who cares? If it sounds great it sounds great, get over yourself and just learn to enjoy music without worrying about who else is liking/disliking it, other people's opinions shouldn't come into the matter when your listening to music and judging wether you like it or not. If it sounds good it sounds good, if it it doesn't, it doesn't. Simple

 

[baboon2004]

um, i agree, broadly speaking - but it's utterly disingenous to pretend that anyone consumes culture in a vacuum.

i'm not disliking it cos it's overhyped, i'm disliking it cos i don't like it very much. but i find it extraordinary and perplexing that it is hyped so much.

 

[Damien]

i'm not disliking it cos it's overhyped, i'm disliking it cos i don't like it very much. but i find it extraordinary and perplexing that it is hyped so much.

That's fair enough

I was thinking more about personal experience, like when I was talking to the guys at the local record store about Mosca - Nike and the guy said 'it sounds just like old house though' and this is coming from a guy that loves old house, surely that's a a good thing? And the next rebuttal was 'I don't like it because people are saying it's meant to be new'

really deviating away from the quite simple point of 'does it sound good?'

edit: talking of deviating from a point, I seem to be moving away from the topic at hand, James Blake, my apologies

 

[gumdrops]

i didn't mean to come across smug (if i did). JB isn't at all bad. i quite like that air and lack thereof song, though no, it doesn't seem to do much new, or reveal someone with an amazing new take on existing styles (reminds me mostly of late 90s early 00s instrumental hip-hop/glitch). but it's quite nice with some interesting little touches. and i could totally see it being picked up for an apple itunes or three mobile tv advert (ok i am being smug now).

i think he might grow on me.

 

[CrowleyHead]

The IDM fear is especially hilarious. Forgive me but the 'fear of intelligence' thrown at various producers is just trite. "Oh no, these guys have concepts and aggendas, they're SO not the future!!!! To be the future, you must be naive, and have no realization of what you do!!!"

 

[baboon2004]

The IDM fear is especially hilarious. Forgive me but the 'fear of intelligence' thrown at various producers is just trite. "Oh no, these guys have concepts and aggendas, they're SO not the future!!!! To be the future, you must be naive, and have no realization of what you do!!!"

Nah, that's not it at all. Would never've said that about UR, for example, and they were packed to the gills with concepts and agendas. It's just that most of IDM was so insufferably dull/vibeless (I liked some of it, obv.), and certainly didn't suffer from a surfeit of intelligence anyways. Its view of intelligence was a particular, very constricted view of what intelligence must be - this is for another thread, perhaps.

 

[rwtt]

The IDM fear is especially hilarious. Forgive me but the 'fear of intelligence' thrown at various producers is just trite. "Oh no, these guys have concepts and aggendas, they're SO not the future!!!! To be the future, you must be naive, and have no realization of what you do!!!"

i think the IDM fear is wholly understandable. no one, but NO ONE, wants THAT to happen to the music they love.

 

[wise]

i think the IDM fear is wholly understandable. no one, but NO ONE, wants THAT to happen to the music they love.

This and previous quote, fight the IDM it's the death of all that is right and good

 

[Slothrop]

Nah, that's not it at all. Would never've said that about UR, for example, and they were packed to the gills with concepts and agendas. It's just that most of IDM was so insufferably dull/vibeless (I liked some of it, obv.), and certainly didn't suffer from a surfeit of intelligence anyways. Its view of intelligence was a particular, very constricted view of what intelligence must be - this is for another thread, perhaps.

Yeah, I wouldn't actually associate James Blake or anyone else under disscussion here with concepts and agendas anyway. Probably the most conceptual / agenda oriented person in the dubstep / whatever millieu (and one of the most obviously intellectual as well) is Kode 9 who I have a frankly embarrasingly fanboyish devotion to.

The IDM fear is about the replacement of raw, exciting, mindbending music with something that is quite clever and uses all the right signifiers of good taste (while conspicuously avoiding anything that might be seen as cheesy) and does some vaguely innovative stuff, but without ever feeling like it matters (there's an interesting discussion to be had about if and why a radical step forward in a scene with a reasonably well developed musical language feels so much more exciting than another eclectic mutation in a scene full of unrelated eclectic mutations) and without ever really being genuinely exciting.

I'm not saying that The Genre Formerly Known As Dubstep is like that at the moment, but it's a tendancy that people are quite reasonable to be worried about, particularly when a lot of the talk around it comes out of a distaste for 'stupid wobble' and a reverence for the 'proper musicality' of classic garage. (Also, I think 'intelligent drum and bass' and the whole jazzy fusiony breakbeaty 'thinking of putting a band together to do some of this stuff live' scene from the mid 90s is probably a better analogy than IDM?)

 

[baboon2004]

This and previous quote, fight the IDM it's the death of all that is right and good

can we get a petition going?

 

[Don Rosco]

That's fair enough

I was thinking more about personal experience, like when I was talking to the guys at the local record store about Mosca - Nike and the guy said 'it sounds just like old house though' and this is coming from a guy that loves old house, surely that's a a good thing? And the next rebuttal was 'I don't like it because people are saying it's meant to be new'

really deviating away from the quite simple point of 'does it sound good?'

But I like new stuff. If I hear a jungle tune from 2010 that's basically a pastiche of a 95 tune, i'll like it, but I won't get excited about it, and I certainly won't buy it. I've already got a ton of stuff like that. I like the unexpected.

As far as James Blake goes, he might not be new-sounding to some people, but I definitely don't have any records that sound like that. I think he's marvellous.

 

[benw]

I think Air and Lack Thereof is definitely one of his more convential tunes - one that I really liked, but definitely not massively different to what other producers were doing at the time. That having been said, I was a massive fan of that tune - especially the vocal sample.I think sparing the horses and everything else he has released has shown a more interesting production style - like Don Rosco says i dont own any records that sound quite like some of his productions - not being very musical myself i cant express what im hearing particularly eloquently, but his use of massive buildups followed by a complete drop in atmosphere/volume/general hypeness is fascinating to listen to, and makes for a good danceflooor tune. my opinion anyway

 

[grizzleb]

i'm down with healthy debate, mr blake divides opinion and I think that's good. it's just all this self-satisfied smugness from some people here that I can't abide reading

What was smug about what I said? Just relating my own opinions. I wasn't having a go at Mr. Blake, I said I didn't like his tunes - and then when suggested that actuially I was just 'behind the game' I explained myself in a bit of detail. Perhaps I shouldn't have related his productions to my own, but what I was trying to convey was that it sounded amateurish. I don't regard any of my music as in any way worthy BTW.