Meltdown Festival: James Blake at Royal Festival Hall
The last two years have seen both upheaval and renewal in James Blake’s world. After splitting from his parent label Universal Music Group in 2023, he’s been working furiously to create an independent space in the music industry. CMYK Group is the result, a creative studio and record label that seeks to liberate new artists from dependence on corporate monopolies. His recent string of shows champion this turn: a solo tour with Blake’s voice and piano front and centre. With an array of electronic instruments to accompany him, he brings this sleek setup to the Royal Festival Hall for Meltdown Festival.
Blake opens with his newest release to date, Like the End, an apocalyptic salvo on the fractious state of global politics. Having lived in Los Angeles for the last several years, he’s qualified to attest that “Home’s tryna be America / They just don’t advertise it”.
With the entirety of the Hall’s sound system attuned to Blake’s vocal and piano, every nuance of his performance resounds throughout the venue – from the melancholy hook on Say What You Will, to his keening falsetto at the peak of Séance.
Blake’s supporting artist Monica Martin returns to the stage for a rendition of her song Go Easy, Kid, accompanied by rising jazz producer Quinn Oulton. Never short of praise for Martin, Blake likens her to a shooting star in her singularity as an artist. This high praise is immediately justified; her vocal dexterity at least matches Blake’s. The trio harmonise together while driving home the song’s core message: “’Cause, after all, no one’s in control / Go easy, kid, it’s only rock and roll.”
After admitting that he came close to tears during the previous song, it’s a fitting relief in tension when Blake breaks into a cover of Barbie Girl. Absorbed by his poignant delivery, the crowd takes a minute to realise that he’s in fact singing about having his hair brushed and going to party with the local boys in town. This provides a moment of levity before the lights paint the hall a bleeding crimson on the first chords of Retrograde. As one of his most famous songs, the pared-back arrangement lets the songwriting speak for itself – all the while, the racks of synthesisers surrounding Blake have yet to be used.
This changes during Mullholland. A simple electronic drum loop forms the basis of what becomes a ten-minute-long electronic soundscape, with fragments of generated noise morphing into a techno-style mix. It’s as if Blake forgot that he brought along a small studio’s worth of gear, and at the last minute decided to go all-out. This is not to say that it’s gratuitous – Blake’s skill as an electronic producer is only matched by the craft of his songwriting.
Like Chekhov’s gun, the Hall’s 40-foot-tall pipe organ looms over Blake’s entire set, vying to be played. It finally happens in the encore. Having worked on Frank Ocean’s Godspeed, the lyrical allusions to religion are given extra weight by the wall of sound surging around them: “Let go of a prayer for you / Just a sweet word.”
Although Blake’s cover of this song reached millions on TikTok, he never saw any royalties from its virality. He railed against this at the time, and continues to challenge an industry whose foundations are built on the commercial exploitation of music. Both in his recently acquired independence and the undeniable quality of his work, Blake forges an aspirational path for this art form’s future.
Ben Browning
Photos: Pete Woodhead
For further information and future events visit James Blake’s website here.
Watch the video for Like the End here:
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