James Blake, BBC Session
Listening to James Blake is an intimate experience, true head-phone music if there ever was any. I have been listening to his self-titled full length almost every night as I get into bed and it often brings me to the brink of sleep. Blake is a master of timing and often uses silence as his most powerful instrument. Many of the most poignant moments on the album fall in between notes. Needless to say then, it has been a bit of a wonder how the experience will translate live. Will it sound any good? And if it does, do I even want other people around when I am listening to this stuff?
Fortunately, Blake stopped by BBC’s Maida Vale studios to perform two songs off the new album as part of their Sound of 2011 series and helped fill in some of the blanks. You can stream “Wilhelms Scream” above and watch a spot-on version of his Fiest cover, “Limit to Your Love” over at BBC. After watching both, I am still left wondering about the James Blake live experience, but have seen enough to know I definitely would not pass up the opportunity.
