James Blake, Mt Kimbie, CD/SD

Uhhhh classic? I'm loving the Mt Kimbie EPs and the new James Blake one, CMYK. Anyone else feeling this? Or is it being written off as like sub
Burial or some wack thought like that? What else sounds like this?

Went to Mt Kimbie's album launch in Brixton t'other night, without having heard their music before, and their live set seemed a bit ponderous and timid to me. Every time they finally launched into a groove they had spent ages building up, it seemed to stop dead after no time at all. I'd probably all work better on headphones. The big-glasses wearing Hoxton types inhabiting the place seemed to be into it. Joy Orbison's subsequent DJ set was banging, BTW.

Listening to Maybes on their MySpace now. Nice, but yeah, Burial-like is the first thing that came to mind.

i'm all about this stuff, looking forward to some full-lengths

i don't hear mount kimbie as being especially burial-ish, it reminds me more of telefon tel aviv, or maybe a nicely updated '90s idm vibe

Yeah, I don't hear Burial at all?

james blake is like the most stilted lurching creepy music ever. in a good way though, you know

Everyone remotely connected to dubstep must now be compared to Burial by law.

Isn't there a Mt Kimbie album out imminently or did I imagine that?

there is a mt. kimbie full length coming out very soon

oh hey, july 19

mt kimbie is great to smoke weed to, but how does one dance to it ?

The Bells Sketch is absolutely brilliant.

whats good of james blakes then? is he REALLY that good? people are raving about him like hes the new burial (regardless of whether they sound alike).

"CMYK" the song (and the cut up vocals seem excessively Burial to me) and the EP really bored me. Haven't heard Mt. Kimble though.

listening to cmyk. this is actually pretty cool surprisingly. i was expecting it to be really boring. but its got a really nice quality about it.

really not into james blake. pleasant but oh so boring.

james blake: untold remix > the bells sketch, mount kimbie remix > harmonimix > CMYK, air & lack thereof > pembroke. lex kinda otm though, it's a great sound for the first 15 minutes but withers a bit in the GENRE SAVIOR spotlight

& the only real similarity to burial is the er 'hauntological' aspect, no? much more pronounced in the 'maybes' ep than anything else though

this is better than just pleasant. i thought thats what it would be but its... a bit better than that.

i don't hear burial in MK at all. it's way more bright and colorful.

yup, and pretty.

i can't point to a james blake track that's really blown me away by itself, but he seems like a multi-talented dude and i like where he's going with it.

nothing danceable about this stuff though.

blake sounded like sub joy orb to me

Mount Kimbie Sketch on Glass EP is excellent. Haven't really got into any Blake I've heard so far.

really enjoy Mount Kimbie on record BUT saw them live for the first time t'other week and my god were they boring lifeless plodding and a number of other things that are not fun to watch.

James Blake is pretty patchy IMO but when he gets it right, like on the Untold remix and "CMYK", he gets it really REALLY right.

in retrospect lumping them together may have been a mistake, leading to admittedly misleading burial comparisons at least regarding mt. kimbie.
think the burial influence is pretty undeniable for blake tho, if not necessarily a point that needs to be dwelled upon ... anyways i guess what i really was curious about was how people felt about the lack of danceability. i love how the dubstep rhythms are reappropriated -- in something like
blake's remix of 'maybes' -- and twisted into these shuddering, almost-danceable-but-not-quite forms.

the thing is, I would have thought the same thing, but I have seen both CMYK and the Destinys Child remix absolutely destroy dances. kind of made me take him a bit more seriously, ridiculous thing to say I know.

would love to hear the Untold remix on a good system, never had the pleasure.

The Mt. Kimbie remix of LV & Untold's 'Beacon' was seriously nice. Been listening to that a lot.

http://factmag-images.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Crooks-Lovers-Front-Cover.jpeg

http://boomkat.com/cds/310793-mount-kimbie-crooks-lovers

very excited for this, in spite of the cover.

it's awesome

http://www.factmag.com/2010/07/12/stream-hear-mount-kimbies-crooks-lovers-exclusively-on-fact/

:D

omg @ that cover

This is fuckin A. Wanna say its kinda four tetty though, they've pretty much dropped any uk bass/purple wow influence they had

i think i need to hear this really late at night

they've pretty much dropped any uk bass/purple wow influence they had

i'm not disagreeing, but 'blind night errand' seems more like a straight dubstep track than anything they've done before

yeah maybe, first listen etc. I guess its partly to do w/ the dubstep that my friends listen to which is way more aggressive than the stuff that i was listening to around the time of Maybes

After a few listens this isn't really measuring up to the EP's for me. Seems like they're using a lot of the same tricks but in a less effective way. And then there's something like "Field" (I'm guessing the title is a nod to Axel Willner) which is pretty cool but the awkwardness of the transition just kills it.

I like this

i like this, too. i understand the burial comparisons (hollow-sounding song-structures, diva-voices), but it's a really different vibe.

mind you, i love burial's work. this is just different.

i think my favourite Blake things are the remixes he did under Harmonimix

Bills Bills Bills - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDWHGz2ma_Q

A Milli - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGcOVgv3P6A&feature=related

Ugh that A Milli mix is horrible

(sorry, thanks for posting though!)

RA podcast, about the billionth mix i've heard this week w/ actress on it. not a bad thing though.

you've heard a billion mixes this week already? excellent work

actress is great in a billion different ways though, hes got a track that'd fit pretty much anywhere

good time management

i think i remember reading that he'd never heard a milli before, just came across the acapella.

What is this, microstep already?

not heard the mount kimbie album yet but the ep reminded me of four tet, definitely.

wow, this before i move off song, from the mount kimbie disc, is one of the best things i've heard this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ7AF8IG7Eg

the new album is the first time his songwriting's really done much for me consistently, it feels much stronger and more focused/less meandering than before - "into the red", "barefoot in the park", "power on", and "don't miss it" are all great songs not just great production

i like the s/t a lot still but the strength there is the production and the way he gets so much out of small melodic phrases like on "the wilhelm scream" (one of his absolute best still even though the melody is sampled from one of his dad's songs) and "i never learnt to share". i've never figured out quite what's going on rhythmically in "unluck" either

overgrown is just a bit of a mess to me, it has a lot of ideas but they don't really cohere anywhere near as well, there's a lot more focus on his weaker songwriting, and the sound design felt like a step down from the debut. i love "digital lion" and "retrograde" at least

i don't really remember much about the colour in anything at all, it's just so long and keeps the same mood the whole way through but "i need a forest fire" is really nice

Is 'unluck' is the one with the quintuplets in the drums?

I like him as a producer first, and he's had some great moments blurring the lines between 'voice as an instrument' and 'what is a song, really?' But also some bad moments where it veers too far into singer/songwriter territory and can only be judged on those terms.

Anyway I still haven't heard the new one and I'm hoping for the best, but the EPs (and most of the 1st album) are underrated these days.

Oh dear. I'm sorry to say that if that was the standout track on the Colour In Anything for you, the rest of the album is going to be a real challenge.

Look at it like this:

'I Need a Forest Fire' : The Colour in Anything :: 'Friday, I'm in Love' : Wish

Thing is he IS a star, he sold out terminal 5 few years back. I had a comp and went, thousands of Williamsburg waterfront condo types unsure of what to do, looking at phones, etc

And I stand by my "Robert Wyatt for millennials" in that case.

I think more David Sylvian, me

Robert Wyatt for millennials

David Sylvian

i guess i'm gonna have to finally give this guy a listen

James Blake has written an article for world mental health day and it seems, amongst the other stuff, that he's an only-semi-reformed incel

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2019/oct/james-blake-on-mental-health/

Is this not a bit... y'know https://t.co/TMrHtefy4X pic.twitter.com/UxHVVj0Y3G

— Laura Snapes (@laurasnapes) October 11, 2019

also how about seeing women as, idk, people, instead of a "lesson in empathy and love" pic.twitter.com/6Bg6GYQpkL

— Laura Snapes (@laurasnapes) October 11, 2019

that's not how i read it at all.

to me, it was pretty obvious that he is saying that in order to find external human connection, you need to have empathy and love for yourself first. and that is increasingly hard to do in a modern world that (he feels) emphasizes being "made to feel we can do anything and be anything" and pushes "understanding women as a resource rather than a lesson in empathy and love" before understanding those concepts as applied to oneself. he (presumably) applies this to women because that is his preference for a partnership.

too bad that someone can be genuinely vulnerable and express their innermost ideas and best intentions and still face shit for it.

I'm all for expressing vulnerability and talking about your mental health problems. However, as someone who has had these problems myself I would hate for anyone to treat this as an excuse for me if I was behaving in a shitty way. His attitude towards women really needs work - and his constant self-flagellation just makes it even more about him and even less about them.

His attitude towards women really needs work

i think he's always been the first person to say as much.

He sort of says this, yes, but it's obvious he doesn't get why they are wrong, he keeps making everything about himself and keeps using dehumanising language about women. How about their mental health? Can we have an article from his girlfriend instead?

keeps using dehumanising language about women

this is across the board for him, not just women.

not saying i agree 100% with him in this regard, but he is trying to relate his own experiences to an altogether more universal sentiment. it's been a pretty constant theme through all of his music. he almost always finishes things with a "we / "our" / "us" stance. and the times he doesn't, well, he's only human.

we got from "I'm all for expressing vulnerability and talking about your mental health problems" to "Can we have an article from his girlfriend instead?" pretty quickly!

Sure
https://twitter.com/jameelajamil

i recommend crooks and lovers, the 2010 album by mount kimbie

i recommend every release by mount kimbie.

It's their clear peak imo

And it holds up too.

This is surely his best song-based album (although of course I liked him best before he learned to write a proper song)?

A friend of mine has a duet on this album which is truly mind blowing to the me of 2010 - 2012. Or 2021. I think it's a highlight for sure.

i've been kind of lost on him since the dust settled on assume form (which i still think is great). i was feeling impatient a couple weeks ago and decided to skim the scattershot of singles and eps he's done in the meantime and it all just felt kind of stopgap. i should give it more of a chance.

gave it a front to back listen on our walk just now and i really like the music, but his vocals are so unenthusiastic. thematically, he's repeating himself more than ever and he just sounds so stagnant, like he's bored of everything he's singing about. it's decent overall, but i can't imagine going back to it with any frequency.

"he sounds bored" is kinda where i've landed with Blake for the past five years or so

Idk I think he just sounds like James Blake

Except his influences are pop music and being in L.A. instead of dubstep and being in London

we may be saying the same thing

How about their mental health? Can we have an article from his girlfriend instead?
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 11 October 2019 18:44 (two years ago)

What a bizarre position to advocate, that people should be compelled to confess because someone they are involved with is objectionable to satisfy ones pseudo-political hang ups. Not that I cared for Blake's article but the responses to it have been peak pop idol fandom, and of course the inverse of the popstar is the fascist statesman-like orator. Very brexit-like this whole controversy was. Bowie did arrive at a key realisation coked out of his gord, (dance der mussolini) he just didn't then read Amadeo Bordiga's critique of democracy and abandon his liberal career to make unlistenable scronk for communist nerds. So in essence he only ever committed to his bovine fetish. A pity, it really is. Destroy the rockist vs poptimist binary now! pure hooligan plunderphonics!

There's a limit to your love James Blake, stop making tweepop and it will be unlimited.

JB backing up Monica Martin <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G4T6L7tm4I

Enjoyed this podcast with JB, at least the bits where he gets very specific about his process. How the remixes where he would reharmonize acapella tracks led to doing the same with his own music (ie making a whole track, then scrapping it and using it as sample/source material for the 'real' track), and producing for other artists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4Mz7d6vjX4

Mount Kimbie released a Speakerboxxx/Love Below style EP, with the L.A. guy doing collabs with Danny Brown and Liv.e, and the UK guy doing hard UK bass tracks on the flip

Both good but living in London makes for more interesting music :)

special guest last night at a deep medi night :

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcZePaBWAAAsQVy?format=jpg&name=large

my lad went for goth trad, but said that james was 'quite something'.

Kai's half of the Mount Kimbie record is probably more to my tastes, but Dom has become a pretty great rap producer. Feels very lived-in, which makes sense he's been playing the L.A. game for awhile now. Both sides sorta feel like mixtapes to get other gigs but also lots of nice stuff, and I'll probably listen to it more than any of their last few albums.

Haven't listened to the new record yet but I'm into his Mixmag mix, lots of unreleased bits and edits, takes me back to 2010 - 2012 (except with a lot more house vibes for 2023).
https://mixmag.net/feature/james-blake-cover-dj-mix

Overall I'm glad he's back around to DJing and thinking about the dancefloor, can only be good for his music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=615pYYcd2AE

said i just want you
to know that you are really special
oh i oh i oh i oh i

was not expecting to completely fall for the new james blake lp today

I need some more listens, it kind of floated by on headphones and I actually think that this is a non-headphones JB record, but I love to hear that.

On a nerd level I listened to his RA interview and he was saying that he built most of the tracks around snippets from modular synth jams (and that looking at a DAW on a laptop ruins his day now) and you can totally hear that. But the keyboard playing & singing (which still must be manipulated on a computer I assume) keeps it Blakean.

loved that mix.

james blake is probably the most insane 180 degree turn i have ever done on an artist.
used to pop into Fopp during my lunchhour and his debut was always on.
hated it.
fast forward to a couple of years ago when one of my lads bought me 'assume form' for xmas.
and yeah, that penny dropped hard.
his recent mad video re 'big hammer' = massive WTF.
loved it.

Haha wow, I'm the exact opposite. Obsessed with the first three EPs and the debut album, and while I've liked a track here and there since, I've been mostly wanting him to release something that gives me the same feeling. And I think Big Hammer is the worst track on the new one, lol (it is a cool video though).

i love Big Hammer.
such a mad mad track for a supposed major artist ..

I'll give it another shot. I want him to make even madder tracks like he used to!

also .. album release today.
yet his website/amazon etc says sept 22 !?

i think i love Big Hammer cos it's clearly james just having fun and trying to break out of the sadcore groove that he is predominantly known for.

latest jb has won me back. "i want you to know" is maybe my favorite thing he's yet done and the rest of the album is crazy diverse in the best ways. chaotic and experimental one moment, pretty and beat-heavy the next. really feels like he's pushing himself again. he's definitely not on autopilot for this one.

gearing up for the new mount kimbie, i found this live recording of 'maybes' off the crooks+lovers sampler-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKkFGYgzF1o
mount kimbie - 'maybes (live in berghain)' (2010)

New album is amazing. Strong Motorik vibes

From the singles it sounds like they've fully transitioned into indie rock, which is not super interesting to me. Definitely a bit of trend among dance and dance-adjacent producers though.

i mean city planning was all straight up beats...

but the new album is back to their more song-oriented material. definitely sounds like the spiritual follow-up to love what survives. they had quite a few songs available pre-release + it's only a 35 minute album. overall it sounds like them ―which is indie synth nerds who grew up on new wave, hiphop, + rave. "empty+silent" is early soty status.