It’s been nearly two years since in-demand sad-music architect James Blake released Friends That Break Your Heart, his last album. Since then, Blake has been as busy as ever. Just in the past few months, Blake put in a surprise guest appearance at Rolling Loud, soundtracked one of the few quiet moments in Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, and co-produced the Killer Mike/André 3000/Future posse cut “Scientists & Engineers.” Now, Blake has announced a new album that will reportedly take him back to his experimental dance-music roots.

The forthcoming James Blake album is called Playing Robots Into Heaven, and its tracklist doesn’t feature any big-name guests. Lead single “Big Hammer” is a twitchy club track, and it’s instrumental except for some chopped-up dancehall-vocal samples. If Blake is really intent on resurrecting the far-out sounds of his first few records — the ones that he made before he started singing shimmery, depressive hooks and joined the rap-feature round table — then this is a strong start.

Oscar Hudson directed the extremely fun “Big Hammer” video, which is mostly staged to look like dash-cam footage and which follows a fashionable friend group’s wild, hedonistic crime spree. Once upon a time, a video like this would’ve gotten serious late-night MTV burn. Below, check out the “Big Hammer” video, the Playing Robots Into Heaven tracklist, and James Blake’s upcoming tour dates.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Asking To Break”
02 “Loading”
03 “Tell Me”
04 “Fall Back”
05 “He’s Been Wonderful”
06 “Big Hammer”
07 “I Want You To Know”
08 “Night Sky”
09 “Fire The Editor”
10 “If You Can Hear Me”
11 “Playing Robots Into Heaven”

TOUR DATES:
9/18 – Milan, Italy @ Fabrique
9/21 – Brussels, Belgium @ Forest National Club
9/22 – Paris, France @ L’Olympia
9/24 – Berlin, Germany @ UFO im Velodrom
9/26 – Tilburg, Netherlands @ 013
9/28 – London, UK @ Alexandra Palace
10/03 – Atlanta, GA @ Coca Cola Roxy
10/05 – Queens, NY @ Knockdown Center
10/09 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall
10/10 – Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia
10/12 – Toronto, ON @ Rebel
10/14 – Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom
10/16 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic Theater
10/19 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Playing Robots Into Heaven is out 9/8 on Republic. Blake will also hold the next of his CMYK events 7/6 at Here in London.