Power

Album review

After two quality maxis in 2015, Heterocetera and Agitations, which established her as an unformatted electro producer – earning her collaborations with Björk and Arca –, Lotic is now releasing her first album Power, on which the American artist once again delivers a flow of atypical music. Originally from Houston, but living in Berlin for six years, Lotic, who defines herself as a non-binary artist, quickly found her peers in the likes of SOPHIE, Arca, Björk, or in a different style, Avla Noto. Artists that stray away from the mainstream codes of dance music to better exploit the full potential of electronic music by working on the entire frequency spectrum, irritating at time on the robotic Bulletproof or on the strangely lyrical Distribution of Care. But the groove is still there like on Hunted, which starts with a whisper and an interestingly immersive use of vocals, before knocking us out with a resounding tribal kick. “Hunted, the album’s single, is full of references, the whispers allude to my asthma. It’s also a way to emphasise that African Americans are still being shot at. But I twist all of these references by putting myself in the shoes of a hunter”, she told Trax. Throughout the album, Lotic is able to catch the ear by bringing meaning into her compositions, like on Resilience and Fragility, concepts she’s able to elegantly transcribe into sounds. Heart, a featuring with Argentinian producer Moro, is also a beautiful moment, with its entanglement of out-of-tune voices, creating a strange yet interesting effect, accompanied by a military marching band trying their hand at drum’n’bass. Produced during a difficult time (she lost her apartment), Power is an album composed with her guts and heart. And in those cases, the result is rarely a miss… © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz