James Blake and his just-plain-weird take on music

Born in the London Borough of Enfield on September 26, 1988 - James Blake already had music running through the blood in his veins. His father was James Litherland, a guitarist and singer who played Rock music with a variety of bands in his life. With a musical influence during development - you might assume that it would make an impression.

It did.



James is said  to have showed showed a strong interest and aptitude in music from a young age. This interest followed James Blake into Goldsmith's University, where he acquired a degree in 'Popular Music'. 

As with most musicians, you can't usually rely on having just studied the subject and its wide array of content in order to be successful - you need creativity and talent. James Blake has that in abundance. 

Although with James Blake you are still straying into the more unknown areas of popular music - he is one of the few of his kind (some sort of post-dubstep movement) to have made it fairly mainstream. Many of his songs have hit millions of views - which is very impressive in the cluttered music industry - even in a world where PSY's Gangnam Style has caught over two billion views. 

Getting back on topic, there is a reason for Blake's acquired fame. He's incredibly innovative in how he creates his music. He takes bits and pieces from the dubstep genre and puts it back together to form his own unique recipe. In one article about the musician he is described as "not the guy that created barbeque sauce. He’s the guy that took barbeque sauce, researched all the ingredients, and mixed them in different ratios to make something new that tastes nothing like barbeque sauce." As the article goes on to suggest - this is an interesting way to create music and can conjure terrific results - but also sometimes it just "definitely does not taste as good'. 

For example, Blakes "I Never Learnt To Share" has a beautifully tortured build up which is even pretty catchy as we contemplate the lyrics and what they could mean, but for some, the song could be described as two which are put together which are nothing alike. The second half of the song suddenly switches to a fast paced anarchic digital mix and match. Some have described this as jarring in comparison to the emotional steady rise that featured before. 

For me, songs such as 'The Wilhelm Scream' and 'Limit To Your Love' are perfect as they contain the right amount of everything in perfect proportions. What makes me love a James Blake song are when it strikes an emotional cord and you can tell how connected James is to what he is singing. That is the reason why I chose to use a James Blake track for my media product rather than a more mainstream choice. Edgy while connected and never cliché.