When James Blake’s releases stopped being so dubstep orientated, and the young talented chap started to career helplessly towards BBC radio play, and tours with the XX, his productions have become somewhat abstract, yet firmly rooted in a sort of soulful pop, with his vocals and piano work. Now despite being a talented guy, his productions of late (and album) haven’t grabbed me in all the right places. His musical direction just isn’t the one I’d have taken – so fair play to him.

So I thought that would be it – lost, and void of the space where I expected Blake to grow in to and fill. That sort of abstract beats, soul, dubstep niche, where you find essential headphone listening, but also a track you can drop on an unsuspecting crowd and get an entirely favourable experience complete with friends running up to the booth giving it all “who’s this? What is this!!?”.

Imagine my delight then, to stumble across this artist called Lapalux and his track “Many Faces Out Of Focus”…

Lapalux – Time Spike Jamz by Pictures Music

Something of a dubbed-out organ and synth-led exploration through landscapes of beats, groove and snatches of vocal, this is exactly the sort of thing I need to satisfy the craving, just about where James Blake took a different path. In fact, almost like a slow-motion Sepalcure track, this has got me absolutely hooked. It is most certainly a thing of rare beauty. If Lapalux isn’t recognised as a serious talent over the course of 2011 I’ll be astonished.

The release this is coming on is through Pictures, on 18th April, however in some sort of veign attempt to re-ignite a love for all things analogue and retro, the release is appearing on limited edition cassette tape exclusive to Bleep.com. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind that they’re exploring different methods of release, but I struggle to see the point, since most people will have long since chucked out their casette player, and the collectability of something on a format that will not only be a nightmare to store in a rack next to my CDs, but that won’t degrade particularly well seems odd. This is however a personal view, and I expect most people might enjoy the fact that they can buy a wee box of plastic and tape to cherish like a lost child. Thanksfully for anyone as (seemingly) sane as me, there’s going to be a digital download release too. A good thing, since otherwise I fear this beautiful selection of tracks might disappear in to oblivion.