Be still my beating heart, James Blake has just shared a new song.
Shared during his DJ set on BBC Radio 1’s Residency, Blake introduced his new track, titled Modern Soul, to his unsuspecting audience. What followed was 5-and-a-half minutes of James Blake bliss.
It’s a slow burner, with Blake’s impeccable voice soaring above a bed of writhing, almost industrial sounds. He is the master of creating soundscapes to get lost in, and he has once again pulled it off tremendously here. With some stark piano chords and his soulful voice starting things off, he carefully adds some echoing clanging to the fray before pulling it right back to leave just his vocals to ring out loud and clear.
Building back up with some muffled thuds and high pitched whirring, the track thumps its way along, shimmering and cavernous. It threatens to completely break through, but Blake keeps it controlled and sitting just below breaking point. Modern Soul is not only the track name, but a perfect description of the sounds and styles he is working with here – his heart-wrenching emotion swirled together with his flair for progressive production.
There is no word about where this track has come from or what it means for the future, but we are just so happy it exists and that at least *some* new music is getting around with his name on it, so this will do us for now!
Image: Stereogum