Hailing from Enfield, North London, adventurous producer Loraine James is a rising voice in the electronic music community. Taking piano lessons as a child and growing up listening to a wide range of genres has instilled a voracious musical curiosity in her that resonates throughout her productions. While classes at college, and later on Westminster University’s Commercial Music course, facilitated her encounter with the basic tools for digital production, her approach is closer to DIY culture than formal training.
Often expressing her love for IDM, her intricate, highly intuitive and emotional tracks, composed used minimal, easily-available setup, and openly queer identity stand in direct opposition with the genre’s traditionally male, white and gear-fetishising intellectualism. James’s music is at once abrasive and vulnerable, a powerful dichotomy used to fuse together the many disparate elements from London’s sound universe which she integrates into her music, moulding grime, R&B, jazz and ambient into novel sonic creations with an instinct for improvisation.
In 2017, her self-released debut album Detail caught the ear of many music aficionados, but 2019’s sophomore For You And I LP on Hyperdub would make her a breakthrough star, receiving unanimous acclaim from peers, fans and critics at the likes of Crack, DJ Mag, The Quietus, Mixmag and Pitchfork. On Nothing EP, her second Hyperdub release, she explores new directions with a diverse group of international collaborators including Uruguayan producer Lila Tirando a Violeta, Jonnine Standish of Australian duo HTRK and Iranian-British rapper Tardast.