The debut release by Loraine James' Whatever the Weather side project largely departs from her more club-informed recordings under her own name, instead focusing on textural experiments and moody ambient pieces. Her many releases, including Hyperdub full-lengths as well as self-issued digital exclusives (which she often deletes after a short period), are already quite unpredictable, so these individual tracks wouldn't feel out of place on most of them, but they form a distinct entity when grouped together. It's not quite ...
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The debut release by Loraine James' Whatever the Weather side project largely departs from her more club-informed recordings under her own name, instead focusing on textural experiments and moody ambient pieces. Her many releases, including Hyperdub full-lengths as well as self-issued digital exclusives (which she often deletes after a short period), are already quite unpredictable, so these individual tracks wouldn't feel out of place on most of them, but they form a distinct entity when grouped together. It's not quite accurate to pigeonhole this as "Loraine James goes ambient," as she's still experimenting with complex beat structures on several of these tracks, but there's a far greater presence of rippling, weightless synths and placid piano melodies here. The album is a welcome fit for Ghostly International, a label which has widely expanded its scope since its inception, but has always been a home for rainy-day IDM and ambient techno. Opener "25°C" is an unhurried, meditative drift, with James' wordless vocals dissolving into sparkling, subtly glitchy waves. "0°C" frames heartbroken melodies in skittering beats and interference-like buzzing, gradually feeling like the truth is sinking in as the beats disappear and the notes expand. "17°C" is the album's busiest moment, starting out with a puzzle of trap snares before a flurry of Squarepusher-like sliced-and-diced breaks take over. The tracks without beats are often vibrant and active rather than calm and reflective -- there's a giddy playfulness to the bloopy melodies of "10°C," and after the initial rush of swelling, shoegaze-y reverb that begins "6°C," a complex keyboard section emerges, evoking the intricate guitar melodies of avowed influence American Football. "30°C" is a sort of emo-IDM ballad, with James' clear vocals placed upfront, occasionally lapsing into reverse, as beats crunch and stutter around her. Even when she's still working with high BPMs, James lets the tracks on this album breathe in a way that she doesn't on her other releases, making Whatever the Weather a standout in her rapidly growing catalog. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi
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