The only Italian stop at Fabrique in Milan on the tour of James Blake, English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, DJ and producer.
Blake’s coat of arms precedes his music. If we look at his resume, we’ll find productions and collaborations with almost the best of global urban music: Frank Ocean’s Blonde and Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN, as well as JAY-Z’s 4:44 and Beyoncé’s Lemonade, which he also joined. voiced his voice in both cases.
Appearances range from “Stop Trying to Be God” with Stevie Wonder and Kid Cudi on Travis Scott’s epic ASTROWORLD album to “King’s Dead” with Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar and Future from the chart-dominating Black Panther: The Album. .
But Blake, in addition to his prolific vision, is also a pop anomaly. As a soloist, he surprises with his sound productions, including the new album “Playing Robots Into Heaven” (READ REVIEW) released a few weeks ago.
The essence of this dichotomy and mysterious sonic creativity became the essence of the almost two-hour concert in Milan.
Blake travels through a kaleidoscopic sound world consisting of a thousand influences and entities in a continuous change of emotional states and musical carpets.
His sonic substrate has a little bit of everything: edgy and mysterious electronics, flashes of techno, trap twists, straight drums with house memories (don’t forget that he’s also a DJ), breakbeats, an almost trip-hop atmosphere, and then dream moments. pop, where his heavenly voice, somewhere between Anohni and Sam Smith, caresses and lulls you to sleep.
On stage, in addition to Blake on keyboards, the set consists of a drum kit and a multi-instrumentalist alternating keyboards and electronics with guitars.
The set list included the best of his seven solo albums, as well as some covers of songs he created for others.
An educational yet unsettling concert to be sure to enjoy, which in my opinion worked best when the groove raised the tone, but lost a bit of its luster when it moved into a more intimate and pop dimension!
SCORE: 7.00
LADDER
Ask to break
I want you to know
The limit of your love
(Feist cover)
Life is here
Great Hammer
Loading
Retreat
Tell me
CMYK / Stop what you’re doing
Love me in any way
I can’t believe the way we’re moving
Hummingbird
(Metro Boomin cover)
Fire the editor
Voyeur
Retrograde
Happiness
(Frank Ocean cover)
If you can hear me
Robot game to heaven
Modern soul