NO GOOD / MIRANDA by IFAN DAFYDD

The first thing you think when you hear Ifan Dafydd’s ‘No Good’ is that it’s either James Blake working under an alias or someone massively ripping him off. It appears to have emerged in the last couple of weeks however, that Dafydd is either Blake’s ex-flatmate or his cousin, and apparently contributed to a couple of past Blake tracks. Presumably they’ve shared some tricks with each other: the vocals on ‘No Good’ (sampled, in timely fashion, from Amy Winehouse) are pitched up and down in the way that’s become Blake’s trademark in the last two years, and the chords sound like they’re squeezed from the last breath of a dying organ – another touch that’s all over Blake’s music.