Pay It Forward: Loraine James on Aoki Takamasa

Loraine James traces the influence of Japanese clicks-and-cuts pioneer Aoki Takamasa on her upcoming “IDM popstar” album Detached From the Rest of You.

A lot of my teenage years were spent on YouTube, Last.fm and Bandcamp. I was listening to a lot of post-rock and math rock from around the world, including from Japan – bands like toe and Mouse on the Keys. And from there, I just went on a deep dive. I discovered Aoki Takamasa when I heard about the clicks-and-cuts genre, and the compilations from the German label, Mille Plateaux. What drew me to Aoki’s music was that there’s always a sort of playfulness among the madness.

The first time I listened to him, I remember thinking, “What the fuck is this? This is crazy,” but also how minimal a lot of it was. I was instantly intrigued. The record that got me hooked, and the first of his I heard, was called Parabolica. It’s quite funky and fun.

The turning point for me, and I think also for me as a musician, was when I listened to his album with the great Tujiko Noriko, who I’m also a big fan of, called 28. Wow. Honestly, it still easily holds its own against, or blows away, a lot of the music of today. It amazes me how well the sort of minimalism of the clicks and cuts completes Tujiko, and almost turns the tracks into pop songs. That record has always inspired me to mix more experimental stuff with pop and it was definitely an influence on my new album, Detached From the Rest of You.

The album Private Party by Aoki is one of my favourites of all time. When I had my brief, failed attempt at DJing – including the time I was DJing with TSVI at Draaimolen – I played a couple of songs from that album; I think the crowd was pretty confused! But I think it’s a pretty dancey record at times.

I’ve been grateful to play in Japan over the past few years, and Oshi, who runs the Plancha label, and has become a friend, kindly bought me the Private Party album. I was very happy. And the last time I was in Japan, at the end of 2025, Aoki supported me at my Osaka show when I was playing as Whatever the Weather. I was definitely fan-girling, but I was just so happy to meet him – he’d been such a huge influence of mine for years. I even got a picture with him!