- The title might be room temperature, but Loraine James' newest project is all heat.
- Music is a sort of synesthesia in itself. Artists take states of mind, memories, desires and climates then sculpt them into sound. Songs can evoke summer heat or trudging through sparse, wintry landscapes. What really feels like uncharted territory though, are attempts to encapsulate specific temperatures, right down to degrees celsius. Loraine James’ attempts exactly this under her newly adopted, and aptly named, alias Whatever The Weather. With "17°C" her knack for unpredictable micro-adjustments are on full display, a fluid improvisation where juddering drum patterns stop and start without warning, like intermittent gusts of wind on a cool day in spring. There's a track called "0°C" on the tracklist for the upcoming self-titled LP, but if "17°C" is anything to go by, it'll all be heat. It's another example of James' bringing new layers and dimensions to the notion of IDM while taking conceptual risks no one else does.