http://www.thefourohfive.com/review/article/lotic-heterocetera-142
Lotic grew up in Houston, Texas, studying music before
moving permanently to Berlin with his boyfriend in 2012. It’s a journey many
electronic musicians make, with the German capital being a much more fertile
ground both for inspiration and experimentation than the more immediate, instant
gratification culture of North American dance music scene. After several
months, J’Kerian Morgan started the regular clubnight Janus as a response to
the city’s dominant and overwhelming techno scene, using the dancefloor as a stimulant
for his brooding, menacing take on R&B.
‘Heterocetera’ is Morgan’s first Release on Tri Angle
Records, sitting comfortably alongside the likes of Evian Christ and oOoOO at a
label moving further towards the darker corners of electronic music. And these kinds of sharp, abrasive beats
lend themselves naturally to hip-hop. I mean, if you look at recent
collaborations like Hudson Mohawke and Kanye, Rustie and Danny Brown, as well
as label mate Clams Casino’s three instrumental mixtapes, it’s clear that this
kind of heavy handed, low bpm production works well with an aggressive,
emotionally charged rap vocal over the top. With this in mind, EPs like this can
sometimes be in danger of sounding like a glorified beat tape, incapable of
commanding your full attention because it feels incomplete.
Lotic avoids this
on ‘Heterecetera’ by not sticking to any sort of form, adding these small, but
crucial idiosyncrasies that act as valuable checkpoints across the EP. On
opener ‘Suspension’, these rolling 4/4 ticks are punctuated by a harsh, industrial
crash, almost like an old, rusty metal door being forced closed. There’s a
sharp, high pitched synth drone crying above throughout, gradually rising and sounding
more and more anxious until it’s almost unlistenable. Similarly on the title
track, some otherwise conventional synth and percussion movement plays second
string to a frantic sample from Masters At Work’s The Ha Dance, swirling around like thousands of flies trapped
inside a jar. On the slower, brooding ‘Phlegm’ the work is done at the deeper
end, with a robust kick drum clearing the way for some short, intense
percussive interjections. These dark, specific motifs all feel very considered
and deliberate, providing instant and memorable signposts for these songs that
allow them to standalone in their own right. It’s clear that Morgan had a good
idea of how these songs were going to sound before he stepped into the studio,
and despite the uniformity in terms of textures and mood, his skill as a
producer and as a songwriter is in his ability to look at every song as a
separate idea, making ‘Heterocetera’ feel like a fully formed, cohesive body of
work.
Emotionally,
this kind of electronic music can often operate within quite tight parameters. Morgan
approaches his productions in the more traditional sense, though, with songs
that aim to provoke deeper and more specific emotional reactions and
attachments. Throughout the EP he manages to create and then sustain a
narrative by adding an unswerving sentimentality to the technical mastery. There’s
a moment on ‘Stay’ where a fragile, ethereal female vocal is introduced above
another sprawling, metallic beat. It almost sounds too clean, or too angelic,
like one of those default sounds you get on those cheap keyboards in college.
It’s a jarring moment of vulnerability, especially in the context of these very
clinical and confident soundscapes. After moving to Berlin, J’Kerian Morgan
experienced an almost debilitating loneliness and anxiety, as the unfamiliarity
of a new country threatened to detach him from his creativity and sense of
self. “It was very tough. I was
depressed for six months straight, basically”, he told Pitchfork last month. You
can absolutely feel this sense of loneliness and alienation throughout the EP,
which in turn makes it confessional, like a privileged, moving window into
Morgan’s own emotional space.
Songwriting
seems like an intense, all-encompassing process for Morgan, as he channels all
the noise that makes up his world into these tight and clinical productions. It’s an ambitious approach to being a producer, and it’s exciting
to see what form it will take within the wider boundaries of a full length album.
For now though, even at five tracks, ‘Heterocetera’ is a strong, visceral
electronic record that maintains its ambition and intensity from beginning to end.
8/10
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