Gentle Confrontation

The lead track on Loraine James’ *Gentle Confrontation* opens with a brooding wash of strings fit for an art-house drama, then explodes into thrashing, distorted drum programming. In that contrast lies the essence of the London electronic musician’s fourth official album, which follows both 2021’s *Reflection* and the 2022 eponymous debut of her ambient side project Whatever the Weather. Much as its title suggests, *Gentle Confrontation* thrives on clashing energies. In many ways, it is James’ most richly nuanced album yet, suffused in hazy clouds of synthesizer, electric piano, and vaporized samples, yet her glitched-out drums have never sounded more desperate. In “Déjà Vu,” her beats tangle and contort beneath RiTchie’s deeply soulful vocal harmonies; in “I DM U,” her cut-up breaks approximate the drill ’n’ bass of vintage Squarepusher, yet her synths have rarely sounded more ethereal. In many songs, she makes the most of her guests’ distinctive voices: Set against the chaotic syncopations of “While They Were Singing,” Catalan singer-songwriter Marina Herlop’s crystalline vocal harmonies sound even eerier than usual. But James herself frequently provides the emotional center in her half-murmured, half-rapped delivery—even when her verses are only half intelligible. “We like to think on and think on it,” she muses in “Tired of Me,” and then, in “Disjointed (Feeling Like a Kid Again),” she picks up the theme: “Lately I’ve been thinking about it,” she begins, before looping back in a halting voice: “Lately I should stop/And just think…” Songs like this make *Gentle Confrontation* feel like a self-portrait of a searching, doubtful mind.