James Blakehas released only one single ("Air & Lack Thereof" / "Sparing the Horses"), a few stray tracks on podcasts, and this remix, but his sound is already instantly recognizable. His synth lines squeal and convulse, his beats-- dubstep in DNA-- lurch like they're coming through quicksand, and his tension-and-release chord progressions are lifted from gospel and soul. There's a violence in Blake's productions, almost like the music-- the massive, detuned synths; the mottled gospel samples-- is trying to break out of the body that holds it.

Blake is associated with the emerging post-dubstep world of Mount Kimbie (who he sometimes plays keyboards in) and labels like Hemlock (whose output so far has been uniformly worthwhile). This one's a remix in name only-- if you A/B it with the original (also terrific, but not as immediate), the only carryover is a bassline and some vaguely biological sound effects (Untold is deft with vaguely biological sound effects).

"An intern on the other side of the office just popped in to say that she wasn't sure if she loved or hated it," said one of my editors. "But she was intrigued; me too." Personally, I'd rather be annoyed than bored. When I hear Blake's productions, I hear something futuristic and alternative-- I hear something new.(Pitchfork Magazine 2009)