New James Blake – “Love What Happened Here” / “At Birth”

Click on the turntable on the left to listen to a continuous stream of music featured on Pretty Much Amazing - updated every day. For more, you can check out the Best Songs of 2012.

James Blake is making us all look bad – the young Londoner is basically singlehandedly responsible for creating a unique brand of dubstep that amalgamates ambient and pop elements just enough to appeal to the masses, and now he’s got another release, his third in 2011 (after James Blake and Enough Thunder, dropping in time for Christmas. Based on the two tracks we’ve heard from the three-song release, Blake’s mastery of game-changing beatmaking continues to be absolutely mind-boggling and totally refreshing.

A-side “Love What Happened Here” lays soulful samples, all horns and organs, over Blake’s signature stuttering, staggered drum machine – the end result is endlessly repeat-listenable. As for “At Birth,” which will be one of the release’s two b-sides – it’s a little darker, and a little clubbier, employing some of that dubby bass heartbeat Blake’s employed to such avail in the past, but also more ambient: Blake’s soft voice seems miles away, buried beneath a wash of drum machine that sounds like rain. Find the tracklist for the new EP, stream two tracks below. Love What Happened Here is out December 11 on R&S, the label responsible for Blake’s CMYK & Klavierwerke EPs.

James Blake: Love What Happened Here
A: “Love What Happened Here”
B1: “At Birth”
B2: “Curbside”

James Blake – “Love What Happened Here”

Listen to “At Birth” here.

by Genevieve Oliver on November 4, 2011 ‡ 91 reactions