James Blake Litherland (born 26 September 1988), known as James Blake, is an English electronic music producer and singer-songwriter from London. He is also known as Harmonimix when releasing remixes. His self-titled debut album was released in the United Kingdom in 2011 and nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for that year. His second studio album Overgrown won the Mercury Prize in 2013.
Blake received his first Grammy nomination at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards for Best New Artist. At the 2014 Brit Awards, Blake was nominated for the Brit Award for British Male Solo Artist. Blake began his music career by releasing his debut 12" record, entitled "Air & Lack Thereof" in the United Kingdom during July 2009, while being persistent in recording songs in his bedroom. Having been released on the imprint record label, Hemlock, the extended-play became a favourite of BBC Radio 1 DJ Gilles Peterson.
Soon after the release of the record Blake was invited by Peterson to do a special mix on his international show, including an exclusive Mount Kimbie track.[6] During that time, Blake attended Goldsmiths, University of London, where he studied popular music. As his second year composition assignment, he submitted the soon-to-be-released Klavierwerke EP.
A third EP, entitled CMYK, was released through R&S Records during 2010.[8] The title track, "CMYK" was selected by BBC Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw as his Record of the Week[9] and also received airplay from other DJs. On 29 September 2010, Zane Lowe selected Blake's cover version of "Limit to Your Love" as his "Hottest Record in the World". The song was written and originally recorded by Feist and appeared on her studio album, The Reminder. The single was released in the United Kingdom on 28 November 2010, where it debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number 47