Following the release of his devastatingly beautiful new single ‘Retrograde’, James Blake has revealed the album artwork (above) and tracklist for his upcoming sopohmore release Overgrown. Expected for release on April 8th, the album follows Blake’s hugely successfully debut which earned him Mercury, Brits and Ivor Novello nominations and saw him perform around the world.

Most exciting however is the announcement that the album will feature a guest appearence from the legendary RZA, a result of which came from Blake asking him to lay down a verse having been largely inspired by Wu-Tang Clan’s first album when he wrote ‘Take a For Me’ while in New York. The album will also feature a wider spectrum of Blake’s influences citing 90′s R&B and House as influences on particular records. “I probably won’t use a sound if it reminds me of another song and another time. That’s gone. It’s done now. Thing should always progress… These two years have really formed me, I have huge ambitions”.

Tracklist & new live dates can be found after the jump. Pre-order the album here.

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Rather unbelievably it’s already been two years since Ghostpoet released his Mercury nominated debut album Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam - very easily one of our favourite albums of that year. Since then Obaro has been quitely focused on his sophomore follow-up Some Say I So I Say Light - which is expected May 6th.

The LP’s first single ‘MSI MUSMID’ is a sprawling, disjointed journey into a dream he had about “dim-sum and noodles [being] life-long friends who kept squabbling all the time… I try in vain to make sense of it all”. What, you didn’t get that on first listen? C’mon. Regardless of where or how it came about, ‘MSI MUSMID’ is another lucid example of how diversely talented Obaro is when he creates; This multi-chaptered lead single is a true smorgasbord of influences that shouldn’t but somehow does make total sense.

The track will be available for free when it reaches 1,000 reposts on soundcloud – head over there and do your bit.

Earlier today Disclosure released the video for their chart-invading single ‘White Noise’ featuring the voice of AlunaGeorge. Shot in Detroit the video backs up how utterly incredible the track is – rather amazing considering the world pretty unanimously agreed it was a smash before now. Tell me you don’t feel the urge to do what this guy does in a derelict building when you hear this tune? Lies. Shouts to the homie Luke Monahan for directing it. 

When two worlds collide like this the results will always be special. ‘Don’t Say No’ divulges in Shlohmo’s love for R&B (during a chat last year he mentioned to us that his favourite song of 2012 was from Jeremih, who he’s recently been recording with also) and rather rightly calls on Tom Krell, known more commonly as How To Dress Well to piece it all together. Shlohmo lays down unraveling and immersive slow jam of shattered beats and elongated synths as HTDW’s fragile, sometimes fractured vocals tell a tale of heartbreak. ‘Don’t Say No’ is taken off Shlohmo’s upcoming Laid Out EP, due out on March 4th viaFriends of Friends/WEDIDIT.

Coincidentally both Shlohmo and How To Dress Well appear (separately) in RBMA’s H∆SHTAG$ web-series on internet music culture – watch HTDW’s episode on #AltR&B here, Shlohmo’s episode to be released soon.

Newcastle’s Lulu James returns with ‘Closer’, a funky new single that sees her flexing her power-house vocals over a delicious electronic-disco-soul beat. ‘Closer’ balances the right mix of the contemporary and the nostalgic and in turn makes for an exciting new offering. Soul music (in general) has been in a state of stagnancy over the past few years so it’s good to hear artists like Lulu doing something interesting with it.

We first featured burgeoning London collective Last Night in Paris way back in December 2011 when we introduced Rainy Milo and her wonderful debut single ‘Bout You’. Since then a number of their represenatives have released some exciting sounds, now though the crew have come together to release a full-on collective project titled Roses.

While their assembled talents as singers, emcees and producers come together well across the 11-track EP, I find what the singers do between the airy, spacious productions particularly interesting; It’s the same thing that first intrigued us with Rainy Milo. And although all the artists deliver individually I’d personally be keen to explore this side of what LNiP do a bit more. And kudos to the producer(s) on here – some really interesting sounds being executed.

Look forward to seeing this grow.

The reason Erykah Badu remains a favourite artist of mine is her fearless attitude towards creating music with artists less ‘established’ (or rather, ‘known’) than her. 16 years after her landscape-shifting debut Badu has maintained her relevance by continually pushing her experimentalism – her discography speaks for itself. She’s now teamed up with another favourite of mine/ours, British producer Bonobo who in 2010 released his seminal Black Sands LP.

‘Heaven For a Sinner’ unifies Bonobo’s intricate and emotional productions with Erykah’s future-soulism, the combination of which results in something quite beautiful. The ballads understated stature is a big part of what makes this such a lovely pairing. ‘Heaven For a Sinner’ is taken off Bonobo’s upcoming fifth album The North Borders due out in April.

Three of the biggest names in British music right now come together in spectacular style as the mighty Hudson Mohawke remixes Disclosure’s #2 chart smash ‘White Noise’ featuring AlunaGeorge. The song was already huge but trust Hudmo to turn the dial up 10 notches – listen loudly.

Interestingly Hudmo’s soundcloud player says “PMR028 – Forthcoming on PMR Records” – a bigger project coming from him on PMR? They’ve already got Disclosure and Jessie Ware, why not add this guy.

Usher scored his biggest hit with his Diplo produced single ‘Climax’ last year. With one song he reignited his career while simultaneously fooling his fans into believing he had returned (after a good few years of soul destroying Guetta-produced abominations) to his R&B heritage - unfortunately he mostly lied. ‘Climax’ flirted so closely to the edge of contemporary R&B that it ingeniously ticked a lot of boxes (old school heads, mainstreamers and new ‘alt-R&B’ fans) and did so at exactly the right time.

… So naturally the dynamic duo are back again – for better or for worse and unsurprisingly they’re up to the same tricks. ‘Go Missing’ is another fine-line walker – it toys with a cringeworthy over-the-top wobbly breakdown… But it never comes; They reign it in. Clever chaps. And like it’s predecessor, Usher’s voice does most of the work.

It’s astonishingly been 4 years since Quadron released their self-titled debut album to unanimous critical acclaim. The Danish duo consisting of singer Coco and producer Robin Hannibal wooed us all with their core-stirring brand of electronic soul. The pair have now returned with ‘Hey Love’ the lead single from their (as yet untitled) forthcoming sophomore album. The single marks a slight departure from the balladry we’ve come to expect from Quadron, instead the single is a forgoing mid-tempo with powering pianos and driving percussions – the hand claps (and some of the BV’s) remind me of ‘Rolling in the Deep’ a little.

Very happy to have these two back. No one messes with Coco’s vocals.