Logic1000’s breakthrough track “DJ Logic Please Forgive Me” is a clever idea well executed. An archly titled edit of an already famous song, it kicks in with the chorus of Deborah Cox’s much-sampled “It’s Over Now” before dropping the kind of cheeky bassline that can send a small club in an English university town into pint-chucking meltdown. Yet these qualities—pop immediacy, winking humour, brash confidence—are in low supply on Logic1000’s first full-length, which aims for sophistication over quirkiness and ends up adrift from both.
Samantha Poulter’s musical journey since her debut has been one of increasing focus—or, perhaps, a steady narrowing of parameters. On her debut EP, along with that ’90s R&B flip (dubbed “one of the big tracks of 2019” by Four Tet), Poulter tooled around with the easy touch of the Zen-minded beginner, exploring the hinterland between reggaeton and 2-step, shaken-up Middle Eastern drums, even stripping out rhythms to expose negative dubspace. But by 2021’s In the Sweetness of You EP, a furrow was emerging: well-behaved rave, taking bits of house, garage, and reggaeton and rendering them in soft pastel shades on remixes for artists like Glass Animals, Fever Ray, and—an obvious influence—Caribou.
Among Mother’s 12 tracks, a solid vocal house EP lurks: three trim, catchy songs with slick pop vocals, not hard or hip enough for underground dancefloors but miles classier than anything blaring out over the stairmasters at your gym. “Every Lil” is the best of them, tapping into the heat of Miami’s Latin club scene through MJ Nebreda’s soft-stroke vocals, a reggaeton-house rhythm, splashy drums from DJ Plead, and—why not?—the chord progression from “Music Sounds Better With You.” It’s smart; it works. The other two are sturdy singles, but could have been made any time in the last decade: “Self to Blame,” with California singer Kayla Blackmon, provides punchy dance-pop on the Disclosure-to-Dua Lipa continuum, and “Promises” is polished to a shine by Kaytranada collaborator Rochelle Jordan.
What’s left over is puzzlingly anonymous. Pushed further and deeper, this material might’ve been its own record—a set of supple, deep house for well-groomed dancefloors, all moisturised and minty of breath. “Heartbeat” turns simplicity to its advantage, ping-ponging around a chiming bassline redolent of Jaydee’s ’90s house classic “Plastic Dreams.” “All You Like,” with its dreamy minor chords sighing around an insistent vocal, is in thrall to Caribou and Four Tet—but without the quirks and tics that gird her elders’ oddball genius. “Grown on Me” serves up the same sort of soft-boiled UK bass, lacking in structure beyond the usual build, rise, drop, repeat. Even cranked up loud, this just isn’t functional dance music—there’s an empty space where the oomph should be.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
