Photos by Levi French
“Music is love, for real” – James K
James K was one of many artists who Spotify had recommended to me via Discover Weekly during the pandemic. Having lost access to that Spotify account, James K too became lost in my memory, until just a few months ago when my roommate played “Scorpio,” James K’s 2023 EP made in collaboration with Hoodie. The titular tune stuck onto me, with its melancholic trip-hop dub beat and surrealist lyrics becoming my soundtrack for dissociating on long bus rides across the vast urbanity of Los Angeles. To see James K live at the El Rey Theater felt like the collision of a near past with my present, and has left me with a future full of new favorite songs and with my mind musically revivified.
From being an active creator in the RISD and New York indie noise/electronic scenes at the turn of the 2010s to the present, James K has transformed her childhood musical practice with violin and guitar over the years into the lush auditory landscapes that we hear today. With her most recent album release of Friend in 2025, from which came many of the songs she played live, James K grows an abundant electronica garden, planting the seeds of dream pop and indie rock fruits as DNB bugs chirp along. It was a huge joy to hear this kind of music live, something I can’t say I’ve experienced before despite it being my favorite genre.
The setup was minimal on James K’s El Rey stage, consisting of a laptop, a synth, and supporting guitars on each side by Ryley Walker and Lazar Bozic. The night began with a downtempo introduction into James K’s world of sound as her brilliant live vocals filled the space, making the already surreal experience of shooting my first concert feel even dreamier. Her rendition of “Blinkmoth (July Mix)” brought movement to the crowd, and it was during this portion of the show where guitar and synth were most strongly fused together, as she loaded up the tunes from her laptop to sing and play along to. While I’ve written previously that Locust was the closest thing to seeing the Cocteau Twins live, I must say that James K and her touring band may have them beat. Her angelic voice coalescing with quintessential dream pop guitar melodies as a backing track played was certainly reminiscent of the Cocteau Twins style, to a point of tears on my end as I felt like some dream of mine had been fulfilled. From her interview with Cult Classic, I later learned that shoegaze and the Cocteau Twins were some of her earliest inspirations dating back to high school, and that creative love for them was quite evident on stage.
A favorite moment of mine was her performance of “Hypersoft Lovejinx Junkdream,” for which the sound of cicadas reverberated through the space, taking me back to the hot Florida summers of my hometown. The first verse of this song is written by James K, part of which goes:
They are messing me up I’ll run ’em out of me
But I’ll say that I’m hurting my heart
And my dreams, they will shadow
That is, until we hear the familiar lyrics from Bôa’s 2000 hit “Duvet” for the second verse, transitioning into her unique jungle take on it:
And you don’t seem to understand
A shame, you seemed an honest man
And all the fears you hold so dear
Will turn to whisper in your ear
Following the exciting breakbeat of “Hypersoft Lovejinx Junkdream,” James K picked up a guitar of her own and cooled down the energy for an acoustic interlude, stripping back to just her voice and the guitar. For this, I adhered to my mantra of “just close your eyes and listen,” and I realized here that what people say is true, that music is healing, and that attending concerts like these was not just a matter of entertainment but of health as a human being. It helped that the El Rey Theater had one of the best-balanced sound systems I’ve heard, as James K’s absolutely phenomenal, siren-like vocals cut straight through the room, unlike many concerts where all one can hear is drums and a slight murmur from the microphone. Cut-up pieces of her pre-recorded voice fluttered around my ears during her performance of “Peel,” joining her live voice and a soulful ambient beat; this song has easily become one of my favorites of the past year.
After performances of the hypnotic “Lung Slide” and the upbeat indie rock/DNB tune “Play,” the night seemed to come to a close as James K hugged her band and left the stage. To my absolute joy, her encore song was “Scorpio”, and the second I heard its familiar stretched ambient vocals, I literally jumped with my friends in excitement. Its dub beat rocked the venue into a trance and sucked up the lingering energy from “Play” as we collectively descended into its eight-minute melancholic universe. Although one might wonder why we should be left with something of a downer for a song, it felt like the perfect ending to the night, as in our hypnosis I think many of us had remembered something we were trying to forget, and we were sent off into the chilly LA night with whatever that was on the tip of our minds.
What this performance has left me with is an excitement for the present, as I realized just how many talented female electronic artists I’ve had the joy of listening to live, especially those involved with ambient music. To anyone who has yet to see an ambient or electronica set live, now is your chance, because we are truly in one of its best moments.
James K speaks a language of her own, but it’s one that any and all can understand.
And you’ll definitely want to listen to Friend!
