Name: Building Something Beautiful For Me
Brand: Loraine James

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

PHNTM24X

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Colour

Clear

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: Yes

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2022-10-28

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5053760092803

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Total Cap

1 / Extended format: Yes / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / clear

Artist

Loraine James

Genre GB

Electronic

Label GB

Phantom Limb

Loraine James is a British electronic producer and musician based in London. With her unique blend of experimental beats and soulful melodies, she has quickly gained recognition in the music industry. Her innovative soundscapes push boundaries and challenge traditional genres, making her a standout artist in the electronic music scene. Whether performing live or producing tracks in the studio, Loraine James continues to captivate audiences with her mesmerizing compositions.
As an accomplished musician, Loraine James has released several critically acclaimed albums and EPs. Her ability to seamlessly fuse different musical styles creates a refreshing listening experience for fans worldwide. From ambient textures to hard-hitting basslines, each track showcases her exceptional talent as a producer.
With a growing fan base and numerous collaborations under her belt, Loraine James is undoubtedly one of the most exciting artists to watch out for. Her dedication to pushing creative boundaries sets her apart from other musicians in the industry. Whether you're a long-time fan or new to her music, exploring Loraine James' discography is sure to be an immersive journey into the world of cutting-edge electronic music.

Phantom Limb is a music label based in Brighton, UK. Founded by James Vella, George Clift, Ken Li and Dean Wengrow, the label has become known for its diverse roster of talented artists and performers.

With a focus on quality and innovation, Phantom Limb strives to bring unique and captivating music to audiences worldwide. The label's dedication to nurturing emerging talent has led to the discovery of some of the most exciting acts in the industry.

From indie rock to electronic beats, Phantom Limb offers a wide range of genres that cater to all musical tastes. With their finger on the pulse of cutting-edge sounds, they consistently deliver groundbreaking releases that push boundaries and defy expectations.

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Celebrated UK producer Loraine James joins Phantom Limb for breathtaking homage to vital NYC composer Julius Eastman, reinterpreting, reimagining and responding to key works for a brand new album.

In 1990, the composer Julius Eastman quietly passed away, out of the spotlight, a young man. By his death substance-addicted, homeless and broke, he was unforgivably overlooked in his lifetime. Still, the legacy of creative work he leaves is far more befitting to celebration than destitution. Only a portion of his music remains - a deeply regrettable sidenote to an already heartbreaking story - but this work represents a glorious and beautifully hued depiction of a composer totally in step with any modern great we could name.

Phantom Limb are long-term fans of both Eastman and Loraine James. Using their rare, fortuitous connection with Julius’ surviving brother Gerry, the label began this new project in summer 2021, hoping to continue the current tide of efforts to reinstate Eastman’s rightful place in 20th-century composition. Loraine was offered a zip drive of Eastman originals (courtesy of Gerry Eastman), Renee Levine-Packer &amp; Mary Jane Leach’s illuminating biography Gay Guerilla (University of Rochester Press, 2015), and transcribed MIDI stems (courtesy of Phantom Limb A&amp;R James Vella), and the resulting album Building Something Beautiful For Me carries the Eastman torch with finesse and sensitivity. Loraine employs samples, melodic motifs, themes and imagery, and inspiration from Eastman’s canon, slicing, editing, pulling apart and playing samples like instruments to craft a stunning album that venerates Eastman’s genius while adhering to her own.

Speaking in similar tongues as young, gay, Black, independent creatives in a challenging environment, the two musicians are bound closely together, despite a six-year gap between their lives ever intersecting. James includes the original Eastman title in many of her tracks, appending the source material in parentheses to mark the lineage of the work - a clear, traceable thread from the heavenly to the sublime.

Album opener “Maybe If I” riffs on Eastman staple Stay On It. Its arrestingly pretty central melody is reshaped into a living, undulating canvas on which James’ IDM-inspired beat production flickers and swirls. A repeated vocal line pulls Eastman’s towering work of modern minimalism towards reclassification as a “song”. Next follows “The Perception of Me (Crazy N–)”, channelling Eastman’s righteous anger and knowing reclamation of the brutally charged N-word into a quasi-ambient exploration of Eastman piano samples set to skittering beats. Elsewhere, opening side B, “Enfield, Always” acts as a creative response to our past master. While Eastman purposefully, slyly intermingled Uptown NY’s stuffy professionalism with Downtown’s loose fervour, Loraine is a London artist, bound into her locale with the same honour and justified sentimentality as Eastman was with his. And like Eastman, the track’s heady percussion and ecstatic arpeggios contrast intentionally with its austere backdrop.

In keeping with key Eastman codes, Phantom Limb engaged Black creatives to complete the record, including acclaimed designer Dennis McInnes for the album packaging, which is inspired by Eastman’s marginalia on his own (surviving) manuscript pages: “we sought to visually convey the complexity of what we may see as beautiful, how beauty is misunderstood and often lies beneath the surface.”