James Blake

BBC「Sound Of 2011」の2位にランキングされ、数々のメディアやDJ達からも大きな期待がかかるジェイムス・ブレイクのアルバムが遂に登場。ポスト・ダブステップ的な音像と、抑制の効いた世界観。ソウルフルな静寂、エレガントな憂鬱、そんな言葉が似合うサウンドに引き込まれます。2011年において絶対聴き逃せない一枚であり、新たな潮流を生むであろう傑作。

BBCが選ぶ“Sound Of 2011”第2位！ダブステップ･シーンを中心に既に話題を集めているロンドン出身のエレクトロニック・コンポーザー待望のデビュー・アルバム。2009年にポピュラー・ミュージックを学び、7月に12インチ・シングル（Air & Lack Thereof）でデビュー。2010年に3枚のEPをリリース。その3枚（3月：The Bells Sketch、5月：CMYK、10月：Klavierwerke）は全て異なる音楽スタイルだった。ロンドンのクラブで行われていたドラムンベース・ナイト、ダブステップ・ナイトで未だかつて受けたことが無い衝撃に見舞われたというジェイムス。ソウルフルでブルージーなスタイルを支える、普通の人が想像しないような凝りに凝ったサウンドは、耳から、体から、あなたの魂に響く音で迫ってくる。皆さんも聴くべきアルバムです！
IMS

Rolling Stone (p.75) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Blake uses neosoul keyboards, blip beats and layered snips of his heart-starved warbling to create eerie, softly roiling slow-jams." Spin (p.75) - "Using lo-fi digital techniques to play up rough edges and raw emotion, Blake's rare talent is to make music so naked seem unshakable." Uncut (p.98) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Blake takes from dubstep an awareness of space and silence; he appreciates the power of a perfectly weighted pause." Uncut (p.33) - Ranked #21 in Uncut's '50 Best Albums Of 2011' -- "Blake's debut album revealed him to be an innovative singer-songwriter....Spare, beat-strewn and strikingly plaintive." Magnet (p.37) - Ranked #20 in Magnet's '20 Best Albums Of 2011' -- "His itchy productions were born with an innate sense of agitated drama, the tension that lies the shadows of a pregnant pause or fermata rest." The Wire (p.46) - "Blake is an instrumentalist, digital synthesist, producer and engineer too, and -- most crucially of all -- blurs the boundaries between these roles." CMJ - "[Blake] reaches unplumbed emotional depths using the mostly untapped potential of electronics to reach the soul." Q (Magazine) (p.113) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Blake has an uncanny ear for what to leave out, and how absence can play on the imagination." Paste (magazine) - "With a stripped-down, uncluttered sound, Blake's creations are hauntingly beautiful. His voice echoes soulfully throughout..." Clash (Magazine) - "His are fragile, beautiful songs floating over warmly alien, sometimes seemingly formless musical structures yet it's an effort borne through unconventional levels of space and patience."

During 2009 and 2010, James Blake issued a clutch of abstract dubstep singles on Hemlock, Hessle Audio, and R&S. Each release increased anticipation for the producer’s next move as he continually shuffled the deck on his bristly, off-center, and generally groove-less tracks, some of which incorporated vocals -- he sampled Kelis and Aaliyah on “CMYK,” for instance -- or his own voice, heavily processed. The Klavierwerke EP, the last in the series, was the most stripped down of the bunch. The day after it was released, Blake uploaded a video for his dramatic cover version of Feist’s “Limit to Your Love,” which indicated that the focus on his voice and sparse backing would continue. Consisting of Blake's pensive vocal, a simple but affecting piano, and recurring beat weighed down by sub-bass, it’s one of the most straightforward tracks on Blake’s brief debut album. The following “Give Me My Month” deviates most from Blake’s vinyl output; it’s a wistful piano-and-voice ballad that has far more in common with Procol Harum than any given contemporary linked to Blake. The rest of the tracks are more like exercises in sound manipulation and reduction than songs. The approach is no fault, but Blake pares it down to such an extent that the material occasionally sounds not just tentative but feeble, fatigued, even, as on “I Never Learnt to Share,” where one creaky line is repeated and treated throughout, placed over swelling synthesizer frequencies and a stamping beat. “The Wilhelm Scream,” one of the album’s highlights, is far more effective, a ballad with a pulse that increases in intensity with skillfully deployed reverb and surging waves of soft noise. ~ Andy Kellman

ブリアルの不在を見事に埋める格好で、老舗R&Sからのシングル群がダブステップのポスト・ムーヴメントを牽引した怪童の初作。ファイストのカヴァー"Limit To Your Love"で歌声を披露してから各メディアが神輿を担ぎ出したのは全然不思議じゃないけど、もはや踊ることから完全に逸脱しているのに真夜中の住人たちが離れずにゾロゾロと付いてくるのは、ブリアルが三人称で幽玄に描いた深淵な世界をこの青年は一人称でホントに見事に歌い上げているからであろう。マイケル・ナイマンのようなピアノと亡霊の如く変調された声ネタ、そして彼の歌声は、まるでトム・ヨークやシャーデーのようにやりきれないあなたの輪郭を露にする。時の人、じゃなくて10年後のベッドルームでもこの音楽は鳴っていると思う。
bounce (C)入江亮平