Review: James Blake @ The Globe
Post-dubstep fans of Cardiff were given the perfect anecdote to June’s grey drizzle as one of London’s most promising young artists came to Albany Road, welcomed by the Globe’s lavender whiff and extreme warmth.
I came upon the gig having listened sparingly to the artist and I have to say the evening was both enjoyable and somewhat odd. Blake’s voice is undeniably brilliant, stunning, striking and even delicious at times, but his music is not always so easy to listen to. It’s almost like a classical poem; you know it’s good and technical and all that but it takes a while to fully understand what’s going on.
The gig was sold out and he was met with great approval from the packed room, with drummer and bassist sitting casually in accompaniment. It was when Blake, a talented pianist, played and sang alone there fell an uncomfortable almost silence, something I’ve noticed as a common theme in reviews. Grown men behind me were shushed by another during the beautifully distorted Lindisfarne and the gorgeous Give me Your Mouth which felt weird at a gig, the shushing that is, although I suppose it was justified.
Perhaps some of the rave loving dubstep audience isn’t quite right for this post-dubstep malarkey or maybe they’re just a bit rude and like talking? I don’t know, but I was quite taken with Blake I must say. Quiet and unassuming, yes, but unlike warm up act Cloud Boat (school friends of Blake’s) he did have this effortless charm and nonchalant confidence which came across in his vocals.
His set was a mixture of ambient sounds, subtle melodies and clever vocal looping with I Never Learnt to Share particularly excellent live. Its haunting lyric “My brother and my sister don’t speak to me/ But I don’t blame them” sung repeatedly and looped in harmony by Blake with the surging sub-bass rattling majestically around the building. He performed, most wondrously, Joni Mitchell’s A Case of You, his voice and the piano combining devastatingly, a quite remarkable cover. The Wilhelm Scream was much more powerful than on record and worked brilliantly live, whilst his Feist cover Limit to Your Love was as spine chilling as-ever, the sub-bass again blanketing the venue.
The stunning set came from a 21 year old who is way ahead of the game and is sure to set the scene for similar acts. This is a considered kind of music, an almost dubstep that is delicate yet powerful, and needs to be heard to be appreciated; Blake has got bags of talent that could really take him somewhere. Somewhere huge.
