The Resident Advisor sponsored artist Lotic has never been one to outcast dissonance. With a rich background in the Berlin electronic scene, the DJ has been spinning their own hand at music production since the early 2010s. Known for their musical styles that closely resemble the “Deconstructed Club” genre, J’Kerian Morgan has been releasing singles and EPs for years in anticipation for their debut studio album “Power,” out Friday, July 13.
Lotic’s style has attracted the notice of high-profile musicians like Ben Frost and Bjork, as well as their musical contemporary Arca. The sounds to be expected out of this upcoming record can be tuned from the newest single, titled “Solace,” that sounds like a mix of serpentwithfeet’s abstract R&B fusions with the typical distorted experimental electronic sound Lotic is known for amplifying.
Like Arca, Morgan’s approach to experimental R&B takes notice from artists such as M.E.S.H. or DJ Nigga Fox, who use the splintering acoustics of the IDM (intelligent dance music) genre and combines them with progressive and avant-garde house styles. The end result is a grand disharmony between dreamy, lush sung vocals and discordantly aggressive digital rhythms and percussion melodies.
What makes “Power” an exciting record to look forward to is Lotic’s voice taking a central focus on the album, a comparable feat to the songs that were highlighted on the artist’s earlier singles and EPs.
The tracks on the “Heterocetera” EP and the “Agitations” Mixtape had more to do with the deconstructed club genre than the left-field neo-soul that’s forecasted on the July release. These past releases were like Lotic’s constituents — Amnesia Scanner, Chino Amobi, Coucou Chloe — that pointed toward a house sound with inharmonious undertones yet stayed rhythmic and eerily catchy in their obtuseness.
The fact that Morgan’s style and sound are so comparable, yet so unique, grants a clean window’s view into the life of what Lotic’s music conjures. In their contemporaries, the music remains respectable and inventive, and from the outside looking in, it’s like a harsh wash of bright colors and fraying electrical wires.
Their debut album comes at a time where gender in music hasn’t been challenged like it is being now. Transgender artist SOPHIE just released her debut studio album to wild acclaim, and the #MeToo movement is echoing throughout the chasms of the internet.
What Lotic sets out to do with “Power” is to strip genitalia away from the norms of music and leave only the animalistic humility that augments itself through the insane production the artist has become known for.
