Cinema NDN: Watch James Blake's Trippy Music Video for "Are You Even Real?"

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Watch James Blake's Trippy Music Video for "Are You Even Real?"

Blake's animated video is a spellbinding ode to his aching sound.

James Blake is your favorite producer's favorite producer.

Harnessing an innate capability to devise aching melodies and glide across the genre spectrum with the grace of a gazelle, the Grammy Award-winning artist is one of the most highly sought after collaborators in contemporary music. Keeping a relatively low profile, he has collaborated with the likes of Beyoncé, Frank Ocean, Bon Iver, André 3000, Travis Scott, Jay-Z, and many more of contemporary music's crème de la crème.

Back in July, Blake, who NME called "one of the world’s greatest producers," dropped a solo track called "Are You Even Real?" The gripping electronic ballad moonlighted as a masterclass in musicianship, underscoring the prodigious electro-soul artist's profound ability to seamlessly sing over his own beguiling production. It's a near 4-minute journey through the nuances of his venerated sound design, which ebbs and flows with awe-inspiring depth throughout the song's entirety.

Blake's proclivity to transfix listeners into rabbit holes of hypnotic sonic boom has now been channeled into the track's official video, which he unveiled today, August 27th. The trippy video feature's Blake's face throughout, which is consistently distorted as he sings, oscillating between a retro polychromatic feel and an abstract film noir style. You can watch the "Are You Even Real?" video in full below.