Send "James Blake " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Sputnikmusic |
 Who is James Blake, if not the most enigmatic man in music right now? And more importantly, is this a question that James Blake himself can even answer truthfully? To perpetuate a stereotype, he’s become the archetypal definition of logical progression. But that progression hasn’t been one simply shaping the identity of the artist; no, every variation on the same distinguished sound that he’s found himself attached too (even if, from a distance) has been more than just a refinement of his process. His artful dubstep advocacy gave way to more bare-boned soul peeled thin over the empty silence of dying bass music, but being more than just passing fascinations he crafted each release into a defining statement for each and all. He hung around long enough to sculpt each of his tendencies as close to the bone as he could allow, to the point where the unfamiliar became completely and fully, James Blake.Even Enough Thunder, with its complete abandonment of structure and perceived lack of direction was nothing more than a further analysis of the case study he provided on himself with his self-titled LP. So, Love What Happened Here is Blake coming full circle, it’s a return to form….. of sorts. It lands fairly close to the basic and minimal patchwork of his earliest releases: the lopsided percussion juxtaposed against the insistence of hand-claps, church organ synths, and quasi neo-soul that ambiguously hovers over being both refreshing and strangely reflective. And despite being intrinsically tied into the sketchy noir-like atmosphere of his LP, the EPs title track carries its now hallmark-soul through the music over anything Blake might possibly have to say. And we get to hear Blake, chopped up in amongst the buzzing fray, juxtaposed against other anonymous spirits caught in mid-orbit, but here he’s even more fragmented than usual, acting instead as another instrument. It’s all a little familiar at this point, and consequently it’s undeniably Blake, but it feels strangely different; a meshing of the past and the present that ends up falling somewhere in between the two. ‘At Birth’ is something new for the artist though, despite it still harboring a fascination to loosely comment on the indefinable. It discards his more leftfield garage for something that attempts to rub shoulders with the more deep-thinking house of the Detroit and Chicago scenes of American house: four-to-the-floor thump with the bass wisely turned down to a more distant low-end rumble, hypnotic jazzy motifs desperately clinging on like cigarette smoke, doe-eyed longing for subtle techno nuances. It has all the hallmarks of dancefloor filler, but Blake wisely ignores the idea of pinning the hopes of the song onto a hook, eschewing anthem for anonymity....full text |
| Pitchfork |
| For a guy who works with warped bass and abused vocal lines, James Blake remained a constant presence throughout 2011. The constant tumble of praise and media attention, coupled with his more straightforward self-titled debut album, made it easy to forget about the mind-bending sonic abstractions of the earlier The Bells Sketch and Klavierwerke EPs. Blake is prolific by nature, so the fact that he's putting out another EP before 2011's end, Love What Happened Here, isn't much of a surprise; the title track of said EP, however, is a wonder in that it gives us a reminder of what Blake's capable of when he's in his more adventurous mode. "Love What Happened Here" isn't exactly a new song; it's floated around in radio rip form since the beginning of 2011, right around the time James Blake came out-- but its gorgeous, wandering synth line sounds like the perfect thing to close out a year with, almost celebratory in its melodic structure. There are a few familiar touches anyone will recognize-- stuttered vocal samples, gaps of silence that smack like punches, some distant hand-claps, the type of mutant funk explored on his rework of The Bells Sketch cut "Give a Man a Rod"-- yet it sounds like little else he's done all year, proof that nobody's as good at reinventing his style as he is....full text |
| Onethirtybpm |
| It’s rare that you find excitement or interest around a three track release on a relatively obscure independent label, but such is the prolificness and popularity of James Blake. Here we are with Blake’s third notable release of the year, Love What Happened Here, and a return to R&S Records who put out his pre-LP material. Fans are probably hoping that this brief flip back over to R&S will yield more ambient or two-step dub music, akin to that which he has released previously on the label. While that is partly the case on this EP (there can’t be said to be any traditional singing), we can say, even this early in his career, that Blake is not the kind of person that goes back and retraces his steps; he’s always looking forward with his music. The a-side of the EP, “Love What Happened Here,” is structured around the same keyboard sound that dominates James Blake, but it stays low in the mix forming a base for Blake’s other ideas to stand out. We get cut up vocals (some distinctively Blake’s and some evidently from another source), a plucky keyboard line and some sputtering handclap-style percussion. It’s all got Blake’s hallmark on it, but you’d be hard pressed to say which other song in his catalogue it most sounds like. Not quite dancefloor ready, not radio-friendly this song is the kind that will appeal to those who like to sit down and look for more than just a beat or a chorus. The EP’s b-sides are an odd couple. “At Birth” is certainly the most driven track in this collection, working off a subtle throbbing hum and a nice repeated triplet of soft piano chords that come in and out of the song. All the hallmarks of a great house song are present in “At Birth,” but Blake keeps it low key by not adding a heavy kick or a more overt catchy melody of any form. Its repetitiveness only adds to the appeal, producing a relaxingly hypnotic number. Unfortunately this collection is let down by its conclusion, “Curbside.” The song is not relaxed like its predecessors, instead jamming together echoing drums, tinny samples of what sound like rusty horns and mewling cats, and an annoyingly drawn out vocal sample. It sounds like Blake is trying his hand at a Madlib-esque production, but lacks The Beat Konducta’s knack for making random samples coalesce, leaving it as an utter mess....full text |
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