It’s time to catch up with Strong Asian Mothers who we last heard from in an interview at The Great Escape 2016 around the time of their Lynx Africa EP release. This London-based outfit resurfaced last month with a SAM-style cover of En Vogue’s ‘Don’t Let Go’; a homage to their love of ‘90s R&B. Now Kalim Patel, Amer Chanda-Patel and Josh Stadlen take another stylistic turn with new track ‘Sober’. Opening with strange squeaking synths and an introductory drum roll, Patel’s distinct voice comes in painting a picture at half-volume of a dysfunctional relationship. The quiet tension then bursts into bass lifts, trumpet calls, layered pitched-down vox and trap staccato. It’s a gloriously dense chorus typical of this project, with this track in particular finding a hold in a creative challenge where the trio each made one beat every day, sending them to each other in the evening. It took one beat to catch their imagination, especially with further inspiration coming from an unexpected place - through the wall. According to Strong Asian Mothers, “'Sober' was inspired by waking up one morning after a heavy night and hearing in the next bedroom a girl shout at a boy 'I CAN'T STAND YOU WHEN IM F**KING SOBER’. It's about debauched drunken nights and flings in which one person wants more than the other does…” - HT