Reassuring to know that Loraine James can always rely on her biggest fan. When asked about the messages her mother posts under so many YouTube videos of her performances, she laughs. »She always wants to be in the front row at my shows,« she says happily. Mother James also diligently follows her daughter’s appearances on Instagram. The pride practically bursts through the screen. The sweet declarations of love are easy to spot from the generous number of heart emojis.
Growing up in Enfield, north London, the young Loraine James did not only listen to her mother, who played steel drums in a band at the time. London, in her childhood, sounded like UK garage and grime. »That totally takes me back to the early 2000s. With a Sony Ericsson phone at the back of the school bus and a whole lot of noise.«
At home, though, there was plenty of Deftones, math rock and Midwest emo. She also feels close to pop. Melodies are welcome to be larger than life. One might not necessarily assume that at first while listening through her often fragile-seeming, glitchy electronica, which tends towards IDM, RnB and similar letter combinations. Her new album Detached From The Rest Of You also sees itself as a connecting piece between jumpy glitch-pop, hyper-nervous clicks & cuts sound and digital minimalism.
But it cannot do entirely without the influence of her guitar phase: »I play some tracks as if I were trying to imitate a guitar. That finger-tapping, that Midwest sound.« Alongside Alan Sparhawk, formerly of Low, and Miho Hatori, who already had an exciting to peculiar relationship with melodies back in her Cibo Matto days, she has also invited off-pop and RnB underground icon Tirzah, whom she met at an Arthur Russell tribute show.
To be heard, but not seen
Sometimes James sends her management a list of names she would like to have on the album, and during the demo phase already places a cappellas over her tracks. But she would never give anyone thematic instructions. »There were never really moments where I thought: ›What the hell are you even talking about?‹«
»Otherwise I’m just a completely different person from when I started.«
Loraine James has to finish her albums before the next transformation.
She is happy that her tracks repeatedly trigger feelings in her guests with which she can identify. James also immortalises herself and her own voice on her records. Because there are things she has to tell herself. However introverted one may be. For her, these are the moments when she feels: yep, that really is me. But the self-doubt remains. She does not want to step too far out of the shadow either.
On the cover of the new album, her face is therefore visible only as a silhouette. A deliberately chosen contrast to its predecessor Gentle Conversation, on which she showed herself clearly and unprotected.
Playing with limits
Part of protecting herself is knowing when enough is enough. If she notices the first mediocre idea arriving or, worse, the first bad track taking shape, it means: pull the ripcord. Stop. That’s it. The album is done. It won’t get better. In any case, the British artist cannot spend several years on a record. For pragmatic reasons too: »Otherwise I’m just a completely different person from when I started.«
Compared with the beginning of her career, she certainly is. She released her first record while still at university, almost ten years ago. When she does miss the roughness of that period, she grabs her laptop and takes it to bed. »Sometimes I simply find it more liberating to be limited in my means.«
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Almost everything that emerges there ends up on Hyperdub. A label that has little interest in limits and has proved itself a singular presence in the more recent British history of outlying electronic music. Initially still helping build what could be called dubstep, the music released there by Kode9 kept daring itself further out. For James, it is the ideal home, because »a large part of electronic music is incredibly safe and very boring«.
To keep herself from ever getting the idea of boring herself, she launched the project Whatever The Weather a few years ago and has already released two albums under that name. Delicate ambient music, with track titles all given as Celsius degrees. She does without voices. Here she is allowed consciously to remain in the shadows and hide. The good thing, though, is this: an album like Detached From The Rest Of You is an invitation to come along and listen to Loraine James’s stories in the dark.
