James Blake has been announced in 2nd place for the Sound of 2011.
London producer James Blake sails into Sound Of 2011's 2nd spot at the forefront of the emerging post-dubstep sub genre of UK club music. The Deptford based artist started singing and studying piano at the age of six, a tutorage which eventually led to Blake's attendance of Goldsmiths University to study Popular Music. Early listening came in the form of his parent's classical and jazz collections, in addition to US Soul and R 'n' B from the likes of Stevie Wonder, D'Angelo and Sly & The Family Stone. Blake's love of electronic music came much later when the artist discovered dubstep duo Digital Mystikz a few months prior to his Goldsmiths enrolment.
Club nights at the University followed, before an appearance on Rinse FM's new producer segment saw Blake signed to fellow dubstep producer Untold's label Hemlock. James released his first twelve inch Air and Lack Thereof on the label, while creating blog buzz with remixes of tracks by Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne and Destiny's Child under his alter ego Harmonimix. Soon after the producer joined Mount Kimbie as the third member of their live show.
Blake claims he was influenced to add more of his own vocal to his work by Joni Mitchell's Blue and Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago, and this style has become increasingly evident in subsequent releases on respected Belgian label R&S. Recent single, a cover of Feist's Limit To Your Love, would seem to be his most refined to date. This was singled out by Radio 1's Zane Lowe in his "Hottest Record in the World" segment, which only adds to growing anticipation for the producer's self-titled debut, set for release on Atlas/A&M in early February.
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Limit to your love? Limit to his talent, more like. Truly dreadful.
This countdown of the "top 5" begs the question, have any of the voting panel gone out to dirty sweaty gigs and seen live acts? Or are these nominations purely based on the hype surrounding a major label/radio DJ being interested on the basis of someone's You Tube video? I go to at least 4 gigs a week, and of the 4 "top 5" so far announced, none would make my top 1000 artists seen in 2010, that's how bad these nominations are. Pathetic!!!!
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Mr fullserviceuk, since you're a regular gig goer I'm surprised you've not seen many of the shortlisted acts! Yuck are phenomenal live as is James Blake.
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I've seen 11 of the original 15. I've not seen James Blake live, and on the basis of the videos on the BBC site I certainly wouldn't want to either. Totally lacking in any discernible talent. The most innovative of all the 15 is Anna Calvi... it will be interesting to see if she gets the top spot, but I somehow doubt it as she doesn't have a major label or puffed up Radio 1 DJ pushing her case!
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I'm afraid I have to disagree with you aswell fullserviceuk. James Blake should have won as, in my opinion, he is the only decent talent coming out of the UK at the moment. Listen to "CMYK" and "I Only Know (What I Know Now)" and tell me he has no talent.
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"So you wrote it"
"no, it's a cover of a Feist song".
Great preparation work there Victoria. Spot on. Nailed it once again.
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@fullserviceuk I am the only one who suspects you did an anti-James Blake post just because you thought of the gag? "Limit to your talent more like" - admittedly quite funny!
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He became one of my favorite artists
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I like the Lindisfarne track. could say it's his 'Hide and Seek' (I. Heap)
what's he singing '____ don't fly too high?' is it big girl/Bickle? any significance to that?
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I cannot believe there are comments claiming that James Blake is "totally lacking in any discernible talent". The sophistication of the music he has been producing is utterly incredible. His knowledge of jazz harmony, his experimentation with production and his amazingly delivered soulful voice single him out as one of the brightest young talents to emerge on the scene in a long long time.
His music is truly original in it's fusion of classical disciplines with jazz, soul, dubstep and experimental electronic music. To embody such a wide-ranging selection of influences has led to one of the most unique sounds I've ever come across. My only qualm is that he wasn't number one.
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