[Cover photo credit to Alice Ivor]
Loraine James has released her new album, Gentle Confrontation from Hyperdub this Friday September 22nd, 2023. Earlier this Spring, Loraine shared the lead singles “2003,” “Déjà Vu,” and “I DM U.” Later this month, she embarks on a string of North American tour dates.
With Gentle Confrontation, Loraine’s third album for Hyperdub, she examines her past and present. She says this is the record that a teenage Loraine would like to have made, with musical tendencies that reflect that time, too. It draws on Math Rock and Emo-Electronic music influences such as DNTEL, Lusine, and Telefon Tel Aviv.
Growing up in Enfield, London, the young Producer honed her craft observing the skyline of the city. She refined her sound, a mix of Jazz, Electronica, UK drill and grime, a mix she attributes to her mother’s taste and her hometown’s multiculturalism.
Loraine James took advantage of the lockdown to work on her EP Nothing, followed by her third album Reflection for Hyperdub, made in the summer of 2020. She then worked on the self-titled album under the Whatever the Weather moniker.
Since that release in spring 2022, James returned to her busy tour schedule, playing at Berlin’s Berghain venue for CTM, and appearing at Rewire, Unsound and many more European festivals. She also found time to release a genre-blurring EP of collaborations with her lockdown-era studio mate TSVI.
Following that, James was invited by the Phantom Limb label to reinterpret, reimagine and respond to the work of iconic NYC composer Julius Eastman on Building Something Beautiful For Me. This took the form of a “trans-generational dialogue between two fiercely independent, boundary-pushing musicians,” and underscores “the revolutionary power of gay, Black artistry.”
North America Tour Dates
9/27 Monarch, Toronto, ON
9/28 POP, Montreal, QC
9/29 Public Records, New York, NY
10/1 Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL
10/3 Polaris Hall, Portland, OR
10/4 Barboza, Seattle, WA
10/7 Public Works, San Francisco, CA
10/8 Echo, Los Angeles, CA
