It feels like sometimes there’s a choice electronic artists have, whether to make an album or not. Keep it club focused with regular but disparate EP drops and a tonne of touring all year round playing sets at 4am? Or produce a cohesive body of work and become a ‘recording artist’, touring for a couple of months and performing at 9pm? They’re quite different worlds, no matter how the music might be equally well received in either situation.
Following not long after 2023’s Madre from Sofia Kourtesis, Mother could be seen as starting a trend among Berlin based producers for mum oriented albums. While Sofia Kourtesis’ fine effort was honouring a parent, Logic1000, aka Samantha Poulter, is reflecting more on her own experience of becoming a mother. And maybe it explains the more parent-friendly approach to the commitment of making music and taking it to the fans. She’s certainly spoken openly about how a retreat from the life of a DJ was necessary for her mental health, and described the life changing experience of motherhood as “seismic”. Either way, and at whatever hour of the night, I’m pleased Mother is finally here.
Over the years (unsure if parenting related or not) I’ve also made a slight retreat. A retreat from a dislike of house music. And as in previous EPs like In The Sweetness of You (as reviewed on this site), Mother continues to show how much this genre I previously maligned has to offer, and how Logic1000 can bring elements from other related electronic styles – the basslines on album opener ‘From Within’ and the latin percussion on ‘Oceanic’ are just two examples. It’s still rooted in house, but it’s a truly multi-genre approach, and one that’s executed astonishingly well.
Recent single ‘Promises’ brings listeners closest to a full ‘song’ – by that I mean with a vocal throughout, with a familiar verse and chorus structure, most fully leaning into the serenely melodic nature of the record also heard on ‘Self to Blame’ and ‘Cartier’. ‘Can’t Let Go’ speeds things up just a touch before ‘Every Lil’’ gives me good reason to make a second Sofia Kourtesis comparison in this review. The Spanish language vocals provided by MJ Nebrada, over the top of the relaxed yet constantly engaging beat, help create a very similar vibe to much of Madre. Definitely a good thing in my book. And three quarters of the way through I feel like I’m back in the 90s and starting to question where any of anti-house feeling came from in the first place.
And before you’ve even realised the time has passed, ‘Grown on Me’, Mother’s final track, has brought you round a musical full circle, leaving you demanding, no, needing more beats. But being a parent and unable to simply disappear off to a dancefloor, I have no choice but to hit play on the album again…and again.
For all it’s seismic nature, Poulter’s experience of becoming a parent is great for anyone fortunate enough to have already discovered her music. My only gripe is how inspirational the experience has been for her and yet here I still am after however many years of Picky Bastards, and two children more than when I started, banging on about albums. Is it…is it time I got off my arse and made some music myself? No, I couldn’t subject you to that. Father just doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?
Words by James Spearing
Picky Bastards 