James Blake - Mercury Prize winner to play at Pohoda 2016
Already his first songs received recognition from renowned BBC DJs. The first three EPs were ranked by Pitchfork among the top 50 albums of 2010 and the song “I only know (What I know now)” was ranked on the 8th place of the top 100 songs of the year.
19. April 2016
The eponymous album was nominated for the Mercury Prize, and he released his second album, James Blake won the prestigious award. His achievements list also nominations for Grammy and Brit Awards. This year, he is going to release his third album The Colour in Anything and is coming to the airport in Trenčín as well.
The 27-year-old Londoner James Blake recorded his first songs in his bedroom, and this is also true for his first song “Air & Lack Thereof” released in July 2009. A while after that, BBCʼs Gilles Peterson invited him to his show. His cover of the song “Limit to Your Love”, originally by the singer Feist, was included by Zane Lowe in “Hottest Record in the World” compilation. James Blake earned a huge success already with the eponymous album. Besides the nomination for the Mercury Prize, he was also nominated for the BBC Sound of 2011, where he earned the second place, (Jassie J on the first place, and James Blake followed by The Vaccines, Jamie Woon, and Clare Meguire). Nine out of ten points from the challenging Pitchfork reviewers speaks for all. In 2011, he began to work with Justin Vernon (Bon Iver). They recorded together the song “Fall Creek Boys Choir”. At the end of the same year, he recorded more songs that indicated the future direction closer to R&B, which was confirmed in early 2012 by his collaboration with Kayne West.
The increasing quality and popularity was confirmed in his second album, Overgrown, where Brian Eno, Wu-Tang Clan, and rapper RZA collaborated. The album contains also his perhaps best known song “Retrogarade”. The Variance Magazine named Overgrown the album of the year and it brought Blake also the prestigious Mercury Prize. In July last year, he disclosed that Kanye West and Justin Veron would be guest artists in his next album Radio Silence, and last Thursday (14th April), he announced that his third studio album is finished. James Blake’s music is referred to as R & B, experimental electronics, and soul. The particular genre is different in various songs, but you can feel the presence of the essential elements of all of these genres throughout his work: imaginative rhythm and bass lines, experiments with sounds and distortions, and persuasive melodies and vocals. At the 20th edition of Pohoda, the lovers of original approach get their share thanks to James Blake. The rest of audience are very likely to become lovers of experiments after his concert, if they come and give him a chance, of course.