Loraine James – Flatline ft. Miho Hatori
Loraine James releases “Flatline”, featuring Miho Hatori of Cibo Matto, the second single from her upcoming album Detached From The Rest Of You, out 8 May via Hyperdub. The album follows her 2023 Hyperdub release Gentle Confrontation and marks a deliberate shift in approach: away from club-driven structures and winding instrumentals, toward more precise song forms. James describes the record half-jokingly as her “IDM popstar album”, and the production reflects that — stripped back to clicks and glitches, drawing from the early-2000s clicks-and-cuts school of Aoki Takamasa and Ryoji Ikeda, with sparse keyboard chords filling the space around the vocals.
“Flatline” puts Miho Hatori’s processed vocals over that minimal framework, the lyric circling a love affair with an AI — a theme that fits both the album’s intimate register and Hatori’s history of working in unexpected conceptual territory. The track was produced by James with Hatori contributing vocals and co-production. James has spoken about working with guests she considers childhood influences who have become peers, and that dynamic comes through: the collaboration doesn’t feel like a feature so much as a genuine exchange. What holds my attention is how much the track does with so little — the space around the sounds is doing most of the structural work.
The full album features a cast that includes Tirzah, Alan Sparhawk of Low on drums-and-piano downcast anthem “Peak Again”, Anysia Kym on “Score” with flute from Melodie Blaison, Le3 bLACK and Fyn Dobson on the jazz-indebted “Ending Us All”, and Sydney Spann on lead single “In a Rut”. Mixed by James herself, mastered by Joshua Eustis. It’s a focused, carefully assembled record, and the confidence James is building toward is audible in every production choice.
