Recommended Albums: April 2013

There was a lot to get through this month, but hopefully I've sorted out (my take on) the great from the merely good. It doesn't help that some of last month's albums spill into this month, or that some records absent from this month's schedule will undoubtedly find their way to me by this time next month, but such is the nature of these things:

Suede - Bloodsports
Having not been particularly familiar with Suede's previous output (I know they were huge, but I'm only young!) I was at first put off by the bombastic approach to production on Bloodsports. But now it's clear to me that it has some truly fantastic songs. Highly recommended to any type of rock music fan.



Steve Mason - Monkey Minds In The Devil's Time
Monkey Minds In The Devil's Time not only challenges conventions of singer-songwriter type music, bringing elements of musique concrète, country and electronica together, it also presents itself as a sharp and poignant commentary of the condition of modern Britain.



The Knife - Shaking The Habitual
With Shaking The Habitual the Knife pull off as many interesting ideas as the album has minutes (98 to be precise). A landmark album not only in Swedish electro pop but in the wider tradition of experimental double albums, it stands unique and proud.



A Hawk And A Hacksaw - You Have Already Gone To The Other World
Billed as an alternative soundtrack to accompany the Sergei Parajanov film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (i.e. a concept album around this story), there's little to fault with A Hawk And A Hacksaw's latest. Even without visual accompaniment it's an epic story made of Eastern European-inspired folk songs and mood music. Very enjoyable.



Bells Atlas - Bells Atlas EP
A short set - three songs plus two remixes - from the Oakland-based Bells Atlas, who "capture the spirit of an eclectic range of influences, including Highlife, Hip-Hop, Samba, R&B and aspects of Indie Pop".


James Blake - Overgrown
I haven't listened to this one as much as I'd have liked yet. Nevertheless two years after his debut James Blake is strikes again, with an immaculately produced album expansive enough to seamlessly feature guest placements from both Brian Eno and RZA. If you enjoyed the first you probably know that by now.



Big K.R.I.T. - King Remembered In Time
K.R.I.T.'s new tape reminds you why he expects to live up to his name. Some of the middle few tracks may be out of place in my opinion, but the rest easily matches the best of K.R.I.T.'s other mixtapes. He's Southern rap's answer to Kendrick Lamar, and if you've been following him pick it up below!

Download Mixtape | Free Mixtapes Powered by DatPiff.com

Ghostface Killah & Adrian Younge - Twelve Reasons To Die
If any Wu-Tang member was going hold my attention with a new album, it was bound to be Ghostface. His new record charts the origin story of his persona, and Adrian Younge's live arrangements help him to successfully recreate the feel of a good old gangster flick.


Demdike Stare - Testpressing#001 / Testpressing#002 (EPs)
I've not given Demdike Stare enough dues with Single of the Week, but these new "Testpressing" releases spiral out of the duo's most experimental tendencies. Which means that each track is different; quite unlike anything I've heard in electronic music. Let's hope there's more to come in this series.



Neon Neon - Praxis Makes Perfect
A Neon Neon album is like a lesson in social history, only fun! The subject of this one is the infamous left wing publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. It has track names like "Hoops With Fidel". It's very good. For fans of Metronomy as well as Gruff Rhys/Super Furry Animals and Boom Bip's other projects.



Next month expect new releases by Deerhunter, Savages, the Fall, Daft Punk and more. Maybe by that time I'll have gotten around to the rest of this month's albums. Tracks from some of these albums/EPs can be found on my latest monthly mix Culture Shock (check the channel from tomorrow).

on-Tenori-on's Top 100 Tracks of 2011

These are the rules I used to qualify my top 100 tracks of 2011:

• One per artist. This is pretty much the only rule, and is also true for my albums list. The others just qualify this rule. Just so that I cangive the most coverage to artists I like really. Also makes it a bit simpler for me.
• Collaborative tracks and tracks by single artists are allowed if the artists are equally billed. I'm talking about #51 and #29.
• Feature spots are allowed an unlimited amount of times. Yes this list has a lot of Danny Brown. This isn't true for the artist for whom the track is mainly credited for however, it counts as their track.
• Also these are single tracks, regardless of whether it counts as an official single or just an album track. EP's have a seperate list, just in case you didn't notice.

Here we go:

100. Nas - "Nasty"
99. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - "Ffunny Frends"
98. Big Troubles - "Sad Girls"
97. Jens Lekman - "Waiting for Kirsten"
96. Zola Jesus - "Vessel"
95. Tom Waits - "Bad as Me"
94. Kreayshawn - "Gucci Gucci"
93. Thurston Moore - "Blood Never Lies"
92. Bon Iver - "Holocene"
91. Foster the People - "Pumped up Kicks"
90. A$AP Rocky - "Palace"
89. Little Dragon - "Nightlight"
88. Adele - "Someone Like You"
87. My Morning Jacket - "Circuital"
86. Terius Nash - "Wedding Crasher"
85. Washed Out - "Eyes Be Closed"
84. TV on the Radio - "You"
83. Atlas Sound - "Te Amo"
82. Azaelia Banks - "212"
81. Korallreven - "As Young As Yesterday"
80. Russian Circles - "Mlàdek"
79. Trash Talk - "Awake"
78. Kate Bush - "Wild Man"
77. Wilco - "I Might"
76. Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire - "The Last Huzzah feat. Despot, Das Racist, Danny Brown, EL-P"
75. Black Lips - "Spidey's Curse"
74. Jamie xx - "Far Nearer"
73. Youth Lagoon - "Afternoon"
72. Beastie Boys - "Make Some Noise"
71. The Antlers - "Parentheses"
70. Colin Stetson - "Judges"
69. Cut Copy - "Need You Now"
68. Beyoncé - "Countdown"
67. Tyler, the Creator - "Yonkers"
66. Lykke Li - "I Follow Rivers"
65. Jay-Z & Kanye West - "Murder to Excellence"
64. Africa Hitech - "Light the Way"
63. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Heaven's Gonna Happen Now"
62. Drake - "Headlines"
61. Charli XCX - "Nuclear Seasons"
60. Metronomy - "The Bay"
59. Real Estate - "It's Real"
58. Fucked Up - "Turn the Season"
57. Dum Dum Girls - "Bedroom Eyes"
56. Jacques Greene - "Another Girl"
55. Burial - "Stolen Dog"

54. The Drums - "Money"
53. Toro Y Moi - "New Beat"
52. Kendrick Lamar - "Rigamortis Remix feat. Busta Rhymes"
51. Black Milk and Danny Brown - "Zap"
50. JEFF the Brotherhood - "Hey Friend"
49. King Krule - "The Noose of Jah City"
48. Josh T. Pearson - "Sweetheart I Ain't Your Christ"
47. Hudson Mohawke - "Thunder Bay"
46. Nicki Minaj - "Super Bass"
45. Girls - "Honey Bunny"
44. The Roots - "Make My feat. Big K.R.I.T."

43. Panda Bear - "Last Night at the Jetty"
42. The Go! Team - "Buy Nothing Day feat. Bethany Cosentino"
41. Julian Lynch - "Canopy"
40. Four Tet - "Pyramid"
39. Jai Paul - "BTSTU"
38. Gang Gang Dance - "Glass Jar"
37. Gotye - "Somebody That I Used to Know feat. Kimbra"
36. Shabazz Palaces - "Youlogy"
35. Radiohead - "Give Up the Ghost"
34. Oneohtrix Point Never - "Replica"
33. SBTRKT - "Pharaohs feat. Roses Gabor"

32. Twin Sister - "Kimmi in a Rice Field"
31. Chelsea Wolfe - "Mer"
30. Rustie - "Ultra Thizz"
29. Danny Brown - "Monopoly"
28. TV Girl - "Benny and the Jetts"
27. Nicolas Jaar - "Space Is Only Noise if You Can See"
26. Cass McCombs - "County Line"
25. PJ Harvey - "The Words That Maketh Murder"
24. Kurt Vile - "Jesus Fever"
23. Yuck - "Get Away"
22. St. Vincent - "Surgeon"

21. Feist - "The Bad in Each Other"
20. The War on Drugs - "Baby Missiles"
19. The Rapture - "How Deep is Your Love?"
18. The Field - "Is This Power"
17. Iceage - "You're Blessed"
16. tUnE-yArDs - "Bizness"
15. Austra - "The Beast"
14. Fleet Foxes - "Grown Ocean"
13. The Strokes - "Under Cover of Darkness"
12. Thee Oh Sees - "Stinking Cloud"
11. James Blake - "The Wilhelm Scream"

10. Destroyer - "Kaputt"
"Wasting your days, chasing some girls - alright chasing cocaine, through the backrooms of the world all night", utters Dan Bejar's breathy voice. There are fewer opening lines that are both immediately striking and memorable, and place the listener straight into a certain part of musical history. The title track to Destroyer's Kaputt is a definite high point of the album, a 6-minute adventure through layers of saxophone and soft-rock guitar of early 80's radio. The atention to detail is fantastic: the synth patterns and the female backing vocals each help to create something wistful and forlorn.

9. The Horrors - "Still Life"
Less of a New Romantic revivalist throwback, more of an expertly crafted psychadelic gem. "Still Life" takes time to bring in its component instruments one at a time, beginning with backwards guitar, then drums, bass, keyboards and eventually erupts into colour when Faris Badwan's vocal leads the chorus. Eveything seems to be timed just right and on cue, and feels much too organic to be wooden. The catharsis of this chorus, joined by horns, seems well-earned for both the listener and the Horrors' frontman. "The moment that you want is coming if you give it time".

8. Death Grips - "Beware"
Even the opening interview segment from Charles Manson offers no warning for the terror in store. The opening track to Death Grips' debut album Exmilitary, "Beware" means exactly what you might think. If you can't take the sludgiest of beats (courtesy of Hella's Zach Hil), driving buried, monotonous guitar drones, underpinning MC Ride shouting a truly satanic mantra: "I close my eyes and seize it./ I clench my fists and beat it./ I light my torch and burn it./ I am the beast I worship", then you're not going to get on very well with the rest of the album. You have been warned...

7. Battles - "Ice Cream feat. Matias Aguayo"
Who would have thought that following last year's departure of vocalist and key member Tyondai Braxton, Battles would announce their return with one of the quirkiest pop tunes of 2011? "Ice Cream" is certainly different, even by Battles' standards. The jolly, cutesy, innocent keyboard lines and monstrous drumming of John Stanier that work throughout the band's second album Gloss Drop to create extended, intricate jams instead follow a typical verse-chorus structure, complete with guest vocalist Matias Aguayo's demented babblings.

6. Holy Ghost! - "Wait and See"
I've praised Holy Ghost! in the past for being an excellent singles band. "Wait and See" is what I meant by that. If the duo were under pressure by DFA Records to carry the mantle after the unfortunate departure of the much-loved LCD Soundsystem, it was because of their genuine talent to create meaningful, authentic synth-pop tunes that celebrate their influences as much as they indulge in them (and allow others to indulge). Even above the rest of the fantastic year Holy Ghost! had: working with Michael McDonald, covering Ministry, it's that hook that kills it every single time.

5. Big K.R.I.T. - "Dreamin'"
One of Big K.R.I.T.'s main selling points is the way in which he breathes new life into classic southern hip-hop, in both his lyrics and production style. As a result many hailed his 2011 mixtape Return of 4Eva as an instant classic. With "Dreamin'" K.R.I.T. documents his rise to success with real earnesty and conviction; and in doing so shows a side to southern hip-hop that is rarely seen. Hidden under vinyl crackle is the most simplistic of beats,soulful vocals and guitar, yet the whole experience feels simultaneously cinematic and sincere, as  K.R.I.T. addresses reputation, his religion and the measure of success.

4. Clams Casino - "Gorilla"
The final track of my third favourite EP of 2011, "Gorilla" sounds immense. Right from the beginning, a relentless march of cymbal crashes lead an army of deep, disembodied voices. Tension builds and falls as bass pulses carry the beat's momentum. Ultimately "Gorilla" may not be as different to some of the material on Clams' Instrumental Mixtape as other Rainforest tracks such as "Treetop" and "Natural" may be, but in other ways it's miles ahead: much too dense for a rapper or vocalist, it strikes a balance between the two releases, and sets a new standard for instrumental hip-hop.

3. Lana Del Rey - "Video Games"
It's really hard for me to come up with something to say that hasn't been written about this song, or to justify why I've placed it so highly, but I will try. None of the negative talk or the LDR hating can deny that we're in the transitional phase of a pop star being born. Regardless of any career decisions before or after Lizzy Grant's official debut single as Lana Del Rey, the song alone is a breathtaking, singular statement that we may only hope can be sustained throughout her debut album when it is released next month. "Video Games" is a beauty, that could exist during any point of the last 80 years.

2. The Weeknd - "House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls"
From the first (of three) mixtapes the Weeknd put of during 2011, there have been few tracks that have matched the qualiy of "House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls". Split into two halves, the focus of Abel Tesfaye's sharp lyricism brings the setting to within the party for a change, rather than before or after. The forced smiles for the decadence sex and drugs come through his aching voice, over the ironic "Happy House" sample. Through his storytelling and delivery, Tesfaye is able to make the most exciting of hedonistic temptations come across as grotesque.

1. M83 - "Midnight City"

After constantly revising the choices for the number one spot for the top 100 tracks of 2011, it became almost too obvious as to which track was going to win the crown. M83 have experimented with each album to portray Anthony Gonzalez's interpretation of a perfect pop song, and "Midnight City" is as close as he has ever come to manage the feat. Gonzalez claimed earlier this year that his new album Hurry Up, We're Dreaming was inspired to be the soundtrack to childhood, just as his previous album, 2008's Saturdays=Youth was an attempt to rekindle adolescence. As a result the track has both a fresh immediacy of an MGMT tune and evokes a worthy nostalgic quality through its shoegazey qualities; the kind of tune that could have appeared at any time in your life but is permanently lodged there after first listen. The lyrics are few, and not instantly noticeable: they paint a night time scene, a "ride in the dark" from a backseat vehicle, bringing back the magic to the simply mundane. The song closes with an unexpected but well-timed sax solo (and a closer look through this list shows that 2011 has had many of those), which only makes the fading out of the track more triumphant and euphoric. A new career high for M83; it's questionable whether anyone will be able to get this combination as right as this ever again.



Click below for the rest of the 2011 year-end lists:
Top 15 EP's of 2011
Top 50 Albums of 2011
Top 10 Music Videos of 2011

on-Tenori-on's Top 50 Albums of 2011

These are the rules I used to qualify my top 50 albums of 2011:

• One per artist, as in the tracks list. Fortunately there were quite a few this year who decided to release more than one album.
• EP's do not count under any circumstances.
• Official mixtapes qualify, provided they aren't classed as EP's.
• Reissued albums, compilations and boxsets will also not be considered. Otherwise The SMiLE Sessions would probably be #1, and that hardly seems fair.
• Live albums and live mixes do count, but I tend not to listen to them, hence why they aren't here. You'll have to find them elsewhere.
• The top 10 albums on the list get an honourary 10/10 from me, now that the year's out.

It's time...

50. Holy Ghost! - Holy Ghost!
49. Thundercat - The Golden Age of Apocalypse
48. Russian Circles - Empros
47. Twin Sister - In Heaven
46. Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra
45. Radiohead - The King of Limbs
44. Africa Hitech - 93 Million Miles
43. Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
42. Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
41. The Antlers - Burst Apart
40. Chelsea Wolfe - Ἀποκάλυψις
39. Little Dragon - Ritual Union
38. Tom Waits - Bad as Me
37. Danny Brown - XXX
36. Atlas Sound - Parallax
35. Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
34. Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
33. The Horrors - Skying

32. TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
31. Rustie - Glass Swords
30. Julian Lynch - Terra
29. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
28. Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver
27. Clams Casino - Instrumental Mixtape
26. The Rapture - In the Grace of Your Love
25. Kendrick Lamar - Section.80
24. Beyoncé - 4
23. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
22. Battles - Gloss Drop

21. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong
20. Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise
19. Big K.R.I.T. - Return of 4Eva
18. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
17. Balam Acab - WANDER / WONDER
16. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
15. The Field - Looping State of Mind
14. Austra - Feel it Break
13. Iceage - New Brigade
12. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo
11. Thee Oh Sees - Castlemania

10. The Roots - undun
An extremely slick concept album documenting the life of fictional character Redford Stephens, the Roots' 13th studio album undun became 2011's last-minute surprise when it was released earlier in December. The Roots' usual blend of neo-soul hip-hop dominates the album, but every song hits its mark, and plays a valuable part to the bigger picture. Sufjan Stevens is enlisted to play out the incredibly moving coda, with his own "Redford". ?uestlove has called undun the album he has  always wanted to make, and the best Roots album so far. From what's on offer it's really tough to disagree with him.

9. SBTRKT - SBTRKT
SBTRKT's debut plays out like a dedication to the last 20 years of UK bass music, filtered through his contemporary "post-dubstep" production style. Whether the music is flavoured with nods to early house ("Pharaohs"), or dark garage ("Right Thing to Do"), the roster of fantastic vocalists under SBTRKT's employment mean that every track feels right on the edge of modern British electronica and dance. Little Dragon's Yukimi Nagano, Roses Gabor and Jessie Ware form the female half of the album, but Sampha's high notes are the most infectious of all, perfectly married to SBTRKT's beats. An extremely strong debut set.

8. Destroyer - Kaputt
A very stylish album, Dan Bejar's Destroyer had a very clear artistic direction for Kaputt. Bejar is often likened to David Bowie; if this is the case Kaputt is Young Americans, a set of meticulously arranged, woodwind-orientated, poetic songs. The feeling of romanticism sweeps through the set, usually causing feelings of sadness and loss. Bejar takes the jazzier side to 80's soft rock with extended instrumental segments, bringing indie rock more "full circle" than ever before. But it's as a lyricist where Bejar excels, breaking your heart through his melted voice.

7. tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l
An album that is as philosophical as it is sonically chaotic is hard to come by, and harder still to take seriously. The second tUnE-yArDs LP w h o k i l l is able to manage however, with Merrill Garbus's world music-leaning rhythm and vocal loops expressing postmodern attitudes towards issues of gender, race and violence, and sometimes completely smashing into them. The whole experience is both exhilarating and confusing, and very hard to put down in terms of classification, but stands as a reflection of our modern times: colourful yet irritating, familiar yet deceptive. With w h o k i l l Garbus presents us with today's ever changing face of human nature, in its boldest form.

6. The Weeknd - House of Balloons

The fact that the remainder of 2011 following House of Balloons saw Drake trying his hardest to successfully imitate his protégé The Weeknd's style speaks volumes of the the golden internet age of music discovery. The first Weeknd mixtape gathered the most hype in such a short space of time because of the conventions it seemed to break in bringing R&B a classier, more artistic end of a spectrum. And it was so fully formed right from the beginning to bring about this artistic change: fantastic production, a mysterious singer, and disturbing, masochistic tales that felt strangely relateable.

5. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
PJ Harvey has a reputation for reinventing herself with every album, and Let England Shake provides her listeners with one of her most consistent messages yet. An historical tribute to her home country, the album is a tight set of songs that serve as a particular temporal statement of the state of England in 2011, and in relation to the rest of the world. The choir of male voices, disillusioned bugles and the ethereal autoharp set the scene for the Great War storytelling, extended metaphors that serve as political foreshadowing to the backdrop of the events of 2011 and, what seems to be the unfortunate case, beyond.

4. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
There are no shortage of reasons as to why Fleet Foxes second album Helplessness Blues ought to be looked back upon as one of 2011's greats. A timeless set of songs that mature with every listen, Robin Pecknold's chamber-folk collective build upon their ambitious 2008 debut and offer a more varied sequel, stretching the boundaries of their unique blend of sounds. Pecknold questions the universe and one person's impact upon it; at times melancholic and others triumphant. Helplessness Blues is a whirlwind of emotions, and brings back into focus questions that have troubled the people of the earth for years.

3. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
Perhaps above all else, one thing Strange Mercy proves is that Annie Clark is one heck of a guitar player. The instrument often sounds ferocious as off -balance phrases bolt out from under her fingertips, and leads a swirling mixture of swelling strings and magical-sounding synths. This art-pop brew serves to demonstrate the extent of how far indie rock has travelled from its roots in hardcore punk and post-punk. Clark's vocals are ever-present, and in equal measures as firey as her guitar lines, and as breathtaking as the synthetic mix. The songs of Strange Mercy are at times unnerving, but always strong and truthful.

2. James Blake - James Blake
As stale the hype for new artists may sometimes be, it's also refreshing for such an artist to meet and even surpass expectations their promising previous work was hinting towards. Following James Blake through 2010 to the start of 2011 was such an experience. Blake took an unexpected and ambitious turn when he released his self-titled debut: the amount of space on the album might force you to demand half your money back, if it wasn't for the fact that his tracks resemble traditional singer-songwriter tunes with a cavernous dubstep aesthetic much more than they do the work of an expert producer. Uniquely Blake is both.

1. Death Grips - Exmilitary

For many, 2011 in music began with the spotlight on a young MC called Tyler, the Creator and his collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, whose single "Yonkers" promised to bring forward a new interest in horrorcore and shock-rap. I choose to end 2011 with a sorely overlooked mixtape that did much more to genuinely shock and terrify than Tyler's disappointing Goblin had managed (though I will give it an honourable mention). Even at this stage there is little known about the Death Grips project, except it a collaboration of a rapper known as MC Ride and Zach Hill, who is most famous as the insanely technical drummer of the math-rock duo Hella. Ride has a voice similar in tone to the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA, except he chooses to shout and scream for virtually the entire album, almost to the point of parody and self-parody. The urgency with which he does so makes every lyric as compelling as the last; Exmilitary's lines run like a modern day Inferno or Paradise Lost, and are worth reading just by themself. Instrumentally it feels very much like the same beast; the body to Ride's tounge. Even more experimental than Shabazz Palaces debut album Black Up, which turned up later in the year, Exmilitary uses Hill's hardcore punk and industrial influences searingly. Many of the tracks use electronic noises also: traces of techno, jungle and IDM are spliced into the album's centre especially. And samples as diverse as Link Wray and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown fall somewhere in between, dropped unexpectedly into the stormiest of moments, perhaps as a part of its twisted humour. A unique and unflinching (and free) album, the scariest element of Exmilitary is its ability to makeits listener feel pumped, as if it's relentlessness is pounding through to the brain and controlling the body from within, to become the beast you worship...

Death Grips - Exmilitary by deathgrips

Click below for the rest of the 2011 year-end lists:
Top 15 EP's of 2011
Top 100 Tracks of 2011
Top 10 Music Videos of 2011

EP Review: James Blake - Enough Thunder

EP number four for hugely hyped London songwriter-producer James Blake, fresh from his stellar self-titled debut released earlier this year. Blake's no stranger to the EP format; indeed it was his triumvirate of EP's - The Bells Sketch, CMYK and Klavierwerke - that garnered praise from both sides of the Atlantic last year, elevating Blake into the most promising 21 year-old bedroom producer by the end of 2010. Admiration latched onto Blake largely due to the unique cocktail his minor handful of tracks stir: woozy R&B soundscapes, clattering piano chords, clipped dub beats and vast spaces of, well, nothing; and was eventually heralded as "post-dubstep" for those who care enough for names. Although a definitive aesthetic seemed to have been wrapped up in time for the album James Blake - signified but by no means limited to the forward single and Blake's most successful track to date, the cover of Feist's "The Limit to Your Love" - a familiarly disparate approach has returned to Enough Thunder, which goes on release next Monday.

During the release week of James Blake back in February, Blake identified two key influential albums which distinctly rub off onto the traditional singer-songwriter quality of his work: Joni Mitchell's Blue and Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago. Both albums and artists are represented here, much as Feist has been already (and with Blake's next biggest track "The Wilhelm Scream" actually being a cover/homage to his father James Litherland's "Where to Turn", might there be a trend emerging?). Blake's cover of Mitchell's "A Case of You" is finally made into a studio recording after its debut as a BBC Radio 1 session piece during that same release week. To be honest, it's the flat-out dud of the six tracks here, especially as James' often beautiful falsetto struggles to  keep the pacing of his piano arrangement (ironically if Blake is known for anything, it's the pacing in his music). Although some credit ought to be given for attempting to make an imprint on such a classic folk ballad, the moment James'  London accent hits the "Oh, Canada" part is it truly realised how disastrous the idea had been. The track feels especially naked when compared to the linear dubstep arrangement "Limit to Your Love" received, as well as the remainder of the EP for that matter.

Unfortunately the much-discussed Bon Iver collaboration "Fall Creek Boys Choir" isn't a major improvement. After multiple listens since it's drop last month it's hard for me to approach the track as anything other than a shorter, less adventurous "Wilhelm Scream" or "Lindisfarne" with Justin Vernon's mapped-on vocal. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but seems rather pointless when stacked up against those tracks. However much other fans of both artists (and believe me I am one of them) seem to enjoy the inspired-on-paper pairing, for me the novelty has very much worn off.

The other four tracks on the other hand are actually as good as to be expected, echoing all of Blake's previous releases up to this point and beyond. "Once We All Agree" opens the set and does well to fill in the space that was for some too abundant on the LP. His familiar vocal delivery, echoed and doubled, becomes twisted into a Strokes-like distorted filter as a floating bass pulse growls under it; and ultimately the whole package is enveloped in a guitar wall-of-sound crescendo which begins in the second half. But the track's most prevalent component is the uneasy, slightly dissonant piano chords (a clear Joni Mitchell influence), caging his voice throughout. The EP as a whole is particularly strong in its piano arrangements, an idea which comes full-circle by the final title track. "Enough Thunder"'s piano borrows from neo-classical, contemporary jazz and songwriters such as Randy Newman, and rarely has Blake's voice sounded so soulful and impassioned, and not struggling to extend its notes like in "A Case of You".

The second track "We Might Feel Unsound" incorporates vocal loops and samples as last year's "CMYK" did, but is more beat-centric, and is defined with a haunting, howling synth. In contrast to Blake's lead vocal the effect is especially chilling, and helps to make Enough Thunder to sound like his darkest release yet; and therefore the most refreshing change of pace for his music. Such has Blake progressed from the Burial-like "classic" dubstep range this is one of only two tracks that sound anything similar to the genre's beginnings. The second track which that statement identifies is "Not Long Now"; which features a "drop" of sorts after the slowly rising beat folds, giving way to a dub bassline similar to that in Radiohead's "The Gloaming", and in effect wipes away all other bubbling textures to build themselves up anew. Blake's multilayered vocals are especially languid, and the familiar pauses return, essentially culminating into the stereotypical James Blake track, and the EP is all the better for it. It takes its time to adapt, and makes "We Might Feel Unsound" feel a tad short in comparison.

Enough Thunder is released in the shadow of three EP's and a hugely acclaimed full-length, and it's great that such an acclaimed artist feels the pleasure of multiple further, diverse releases to compliment his short-so-far career, even if this one in particular lacks the consistency of its predecessors. The EP also follows a comment Blake made to The Boston Phoenix, comparing the modern "macho-ism" found in dubstep's "frat-boy market" to "a pissing competition", a comment that has been re-tweeted and has sent strong resonance throughout the blogosphere. Enough Thunder sees him searching and scooping out a range of alternatives, and although scattershot in comparison to the excellent James Blake (the deluxe edition of which is also being released on Monday, and features the Enough Thunder EP on a second disc; recommended value if you don't own the album), the range on offer, coupled with the knowledge this searching is set to continue, often makes it in some ways more exciting.

7/10

The full EP is available for streaming below, courtesy of jamesblakemusic.com: