I have gladly watched the James Blake mania unfold. Finally the masses are getting the subtlety of minimal beats and coming round to the idea of the whole electronic scene. The Blake frenzy brought back memories of when I first heard Crazy by Gnarles Barkley on Zane Lowe’s show in 2005. As I was not yet internet savvy I could only wait eagerly by the radio for its next airplay.
I stumbled upon Blake back in November of last year whilst on a late night blogging binge. Unlike so many, my love affair with his music didn’t start with his now populist record James Blake, but with his less known EP Klavierwerke. I was surprised by the space and choice of tuning on this record. It was so refreshing.
It was on this same midnight marathon I found something else that vibrated up through my headphones and made me clench my sweaty fists with excitement. How To Dress Well.
HTDW is a Brooklyn/Chicago based producer and caught similar attention in New York around the end of last year. He mixes heavy vocal samples and scratchy nostalgic hip-hop beats, bringing you a surprising combination of Bon Iver vs. Prince. The guy, Tim Cohen, has been releasing EP’s every month throughout 2010 banking an obsessive following and some serious bangers.
The lo-fi quality of recording scream for a perfect back-story. Like a modern day Robert Johnson. Maybe he recorded the whole album on the way back from his brothers funeral or was stranded on a ship 2000 miles away from his girlfriend and sent her these songs that she then leaked to the bloggers. But alas, he is just some weird kid from Brooklyn who moved to Germany for a while to do his philosophy post-grad.
His album Love Remains was released in Europe last month with some truly enticing tracks. The album starts with Ready for The World, a silently wailing tune with haunting, intangible vocals. My Body lifts you into something that sounds like a crackling Backstreet Boys demo. You Won’t Need Me Where I’m Goin’ is a bloggers favorite. You can imagine a beautifully trendy hipster playing the track to his girlfriend before he catches a flight to LA to meet his mate who is producing his own (delete where appropriate) band/record/performance hip-hop crew/TV channel/fashion label. But it’s still a bloody great track.
Walking This Dumb is a marching industrial mix, with a huge Berlin influence. But my favorite on the record and the true banger is Decisions featuring Yuksel Arslan. Arslan is an aged Turkish Surrealist painter, still very much alive. Although I’ve not yet understood how the artist was involved with the song the similarity of a fragmented dream-like creation is a huge motif for both musician and painter.
Throughout HTDW’s Love Remains you can recognize that he is at the forefront of the new lo-fi but highly skilled production that is beginning to hit the mainstream pop chart. If you need more of an introduction into this trend of great experimental pop I’d say start with this guy. The masses have only just opened themselves to James Blake’s smooth moves, but I am entrusting you with a deeper love affair.
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