The Wilhelm Scream — James Blake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isIABK-0ohQ

James Blake is a mountain, an island, simple and natural and isolated, untraceable in influences and uninterpreted in meaning; pure and electronic and subtle, evocative - but what of? - and an absolutely impossible musician to relate to. If you like him, too bad, I don't know who else sounds like him. He's blue-eyed soul, he's ambient techno, he's neoclassical, he's dramatic and flamboyant and very quiet, an indie darling and a quiet, reclusive mixer of sound, like Imogen Heap. And this song, the first of his that ever came to fruition and popularity, an unlikely single with a slow, dark, horrid build, like Ben Frost, a build to nothing at all. Hold on.

Retrograde — James Blake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p6PcFFUm5I

James Blake is a mystery; so many artists choose to be these days. He smirks behind strong, decisive neo-soul beats, and the music swells until all you can hear is his voice, drowned out by its own echoes. I'm never sure what he's saying or what he means, but his voice is beautiful, and all is forgiven. And the video is the same; there's a biker who fell from space; a house suspended with bits of rock; the biker comes in and out and inspects during a frozen time; perhaps there's a meteorite, suddenly I'm hit; it's dark and dramatic, but with no rhyme or reason, only a strong emotional impulse, an impulse not to communicate and share, but an impulse to get something out, something weird and dark and brilliant inside yourself, and the only way to get it out is to sing these strange drone-electronica songs, and to ask and tell people what it means. I haven't got a damn clue what it all means. Do I want to? As long as he wants to, I think it's all okay.