Confirming suspicions that all electronic acts have a hidden reset button, on Playing Robots into Heaven, James Blake reverts to factory settings. North London’s minimalist electro-R&B maestro has enjoyed a glittering career since channelling his early experimental work into a more defined ambient soul and gospel songcraft on his self-titled 2011 debut album – like the ghost of Anohni materialising from synthetic mist. He’s worked with Beyonce, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, RZA, Brian Eno, Kanye West, Travis Scott, and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, picked up the Mercury Prize for his 2013 second album Overgrown, received plentiful Grammy nods, and generally become the toast of the introvertronica set.
Whether seeking relief from such high-altitude pressure or a reconnection with his roots, though, Blake has rebooted. Ditching all guest appearances, he follows last year’s Wind Down – an ambient record made with a German AI company to help listeners fall asleep – with a sixth album harking back to his 2010 pre-fame EPs such as The Bells Sketch, CMYK and Klavierwerke, recorded at a time when Blake was merging two-step garage, UK bass, trip-hop and R&B into a formative style coined, at the time, as post-dubstep.
