Meet the South London singer-producer taking late-night blubstep to another level
Hometown: Croydon.
The lineup: Jamie Isaac (voice, piano).
The background: Someone asked recently why Jamie Isaac, an 18-year-old from south London, isn't a household name yet. And when we first heard his darkly atmospheric, illbient electronica/crepuscular mood music, which uses space and silence almost as instruments and evokes a gloomy cityscape populated by lovelorn zombies, we wondered what households he could conceivably be a name in, and how many they had in mind? Because this really didn't strike us as populist fare at all. But then we listened closer and we heard his voice, really paid attention to it amid all the crackly production and echoey beatscapes, and we realised that, actually, this boy probably does have some commercial potential. He sounds like a contestant on the X Factor if Steve Reich and Harold Budd acted as mentors. Or imagine The Voice if the criteria were expanded for one series to include abilities in the areas of avant-garde arrangement and minimalist composition.
Apparently, Isaac is "blowing up" at the moment, so we trust he's taking the appropriate medicine. Ah, meaning "becoming increasingly popular among the hiperati". OK, we get it now. He's just remixed Chvrches, and he is, we are told, getting hammered on the radio, presumably on shows of the late-night, after-hours variety: some of Isaac's music, and we mean this in the nicest possible way, sounds like a depressed Disclosure. It's garage on Nembutal, and comparisons are going to be made with his most obvious precursor, James Blake, but this is none the less lovely stuff that takes into account genres as disparate as jazz, post-rock, hip-hop and UK bass while rarely making evident its allegiance to any in particular.
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Isaac talks, on his bandcamp, about his songs as an expression of "a mid-dream state we encounter daily, where you find yourself unearthing and then solving issues that seem far too complex when conscious". They are, he adds, based around the idea of space and latitude. The former chorister, who has been known to multitrack his own voice so that he can haunt his music like a choir of sorrowful seraphim, appears to be on more than speaking terms with the notion of heartbreak and the creeping need one feels in a crowded room to seek isolation. Softly Draining Seas features clicks and cuts, piano chords designed to gently crush, and a hint of the divine. It's as much church incantation as it is an addition to the blubstep canon. Can See and I Will Be Cold Soon are showcases more for Isaac's voice than for his skills as a post-Dilla manipulator of tempos, tones and textures. Hollow Words includes as much space as it does actual music – another compliment. Drowning Roots is chillout not as in music for relaxing but for the icy remembrance of people past. We found 344 on Spotify and warmed to its shivery hubbub of voices and overlay of chordal beauty. Isaac really does seem to have studied all the sad chord combinations, and they're all there on Hardened Front (according to YouTube, file next to Brian Eno, the Weeknd, Sohn and Deptford Goth) and An Aus Trail (subtitled An Iron Horse Dream). In fact, this whole article could have been an examination of the physiological effects of certain chord clusters.
The buzz: "Someone please explain to me how Jamie Isaac isn't a household name yet?" – Crack in the Road.
The truth: He's Jamie Cullum warped by J Dilla.
Most likely to: Sob.
Least likely to: Rob.
What to buy: The EP is released by House of Anxiety on June 24 on deluxe 12-in vinyl and digital.
File next to: James Blake, Jamie Woon, Mount Kimbie, Harold Budd.
Links: jamieisaac.bandcamp.com.
Thursday's new band: John Newman.
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by Paul Lester via Music: Electronic music | guardian.co.uk
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