Review:
Only 21years old, yet already bearing his own singular sound and style, James Blake is clearly destined for greatness if this EP is anything to go by. A singer and producer, he's already delighted fans under his Harmonimix alias with his cover of Destiny Child's "Bills, Bills, Bills" and now takes his futuristic vision of R&B further, sampling old Kelis and Aaliyah tunes on the title track, mangling them beautifully. Reverbed and pitch-shifted, the vocals sit over a melancholy and glitchy beat. "Footnotes" uses vocoders with style and builds over time while "I'll Stay" brings out the samples again and chops them in an amazingly robotic fashion. This is very special stuff and despite a penchant for all things 90s R&B it still sounds vitally fresh.