El-P - Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3

Decided to put this on whilst wallowing in self pity this afternoon, all sneezed out and drained of energy, we Brits are not cut out for this kind of weather. I'd forgot quite how good this was and quite how much I loved it, after all this was the record, although not being dubstep, helped we finally crack dubstep, although still not Burial, and ultimately shaped my listening trends for the last half of the year, pointing through various sources to artists such as Mount Kimbie, Teebs, Gold Panda, Shed, John Roberts, Digital Mystikz and a whole host of others.

I'm not really sure what genre this is, maybe instrumental hip hop, Boomkat choose to label it beats/downtempo/boogie, whichever way it is awesome, i can at least guarantee you that much. Despite an off putting first track or so this mix really picks up the pace quickly and peeks between tracks 7 &9 which are simply excellence after excellence, maybe topped only by the incredible closing track Eat my Garbage 2, 8 minutes plus of dubby drums and filthy synth stabs. A musical trip well worth investing your time in.

Spoiler : Reviews:

Independant: More of a stopgap collection of incidental music and rudimentary beatscapes than a fully-considered follow-up to 2007's epochal I'll Sleep When You're Dead, this is nonetheless infused with El-P's characteristic dystopian sci-fi mood and edgy, paranoiac tone.

"Take You Out At The Ball Game" opens matters with waltzing strings sketching the melody before it's crushed by big drums, synths and indecipherable crowd chanting; thereafter, many of the tracks employ deep bass synth burrs, crunching beats and John Carpenter-esque lead synth lines. But it's El-P's way with a drum track that's best showcased here, particularly on the closing seven-minute "Eat My Garbage 2", where the sequences vary from the stilted to the slick and jazzy.

Boomkat: Continuing the tradition of 1998's 'Little Johnny From The Hospital' and the more recent 'Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx2', El-P serves 15 diverse instrumentals for Def Jux. He largely shuns samples for this LP, instead favouring a powerfully synth and drum driven excursion with fragments of electro wired with a heavy rock vibe.

Read full review of Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3 - EL-P on Boomkat.com ©

James Blake

Still not completely worked out what i think of Mr Blake, I've enjoyed all his work as Mount Kimbie and have grown to love CMYK over repeated listens, sometimes persistence pays off. The awesome repeated cut up sample"Look I found her, Damn, Red Coat!" over and over as gentle twinkles sparkle over ambient house swells, before exploding into something quite wonderful, whilst still maintaining a feel of minimalism.

In all the time I've worked for my present company I have never heard any song played on the radio that resides on my ipod, hence why i had to pinch myself when i recognised James Blakes latest single, Limit to Your Love blasting out on Radio 1 (i think). It turns out its a cover of a Feist song, which goes some way to explain its popularity. It's quite different from the majority of what I've heard from him so far, simply him singing of reverbed pianos for almost a minute before it drops out and the rumbling dubstep wobble bass kicks in, yet it maintains a backseat position, rumbling like the sound of a washing machine in the flat above, shaking the floorboards without drowning out your personal comfort zone.

Understated and brilliant.

Love the contrasting Boomkat and Norman reviews, I'm almost certain Boomkat have never said anything bad about a record so it's quite refreshing to see Norman being honest in a market were sell, sell, sell is the only thing on most retailers minds.

James Blake - CMYK by jdillon89

James Blake - Klavierwerke (128) by factmag

James Blake - Limit To Your Love (Radio Edit) by factmag

Spoiler : What Boomkat Said :

Impeccably presented, one-sided 10" pressing of James Blake's remarkable 'Limit To Your Love', housed in full-colour sleeve. So, after a string of mindblowing singles which dismantled dubstep and rebuilt it with a baroque, electro-acoustic refinement, Blake has simply gone Pop proper, with jaw-dropping results. It's as though the rare elements of padded subbass and splintered percussion he isolated in the bell jar of those early 12"s have plainly fused into something alchemical and sublimely affecting. Factor in a voice that could stop a riot at 20 paces and piano keys falling like feathers from angels wings and you've got the most heartfelt description of this record we could muster. Sincerely though, this is surely some kind of anthem for a generation...

Spoiler : What Norman Said :

Some of my favourite electronic music this year has been made by James Blake and Mount Kimbie. Blake's superb two EP whammy - 'CMYK' and 'Klavierwerke' both contain really good examples of what we may call post-dubstep. Skittering beats, late night 'Burial style atmospherics and upbeat soulful samples leading to some really fine forward thinking electronica with a heart. I'm not sure if this gives him the excuse to start singing though. This is a cover of a Feist/Gonzales tune and is a gospel ish slow burner led by piano with Blake's Jamie Lidell style soul crooning over the top. The voice also has hints of Antony and the Johnsons but if Anthony knows anything his how to pronounce his 't's. Alas Blake repeatedly pronounces 'waterfall' as 'waerfall' which is exremely infuriating. A flip to the B side and there's nothing on it. So that was a total waste of time then. More worrying its a taster for his new LP so I just hope its a red herring otherwise he's another one headed for the coffee table which would be a real shame.