Workaround

Over several early single and EP releases on labels like Alien Jams and Hessle Audio, Londoner Beatrice Dillon demonstrated uncanny sonic and rhythmic precision: a crispness of sound that only very rare artists like Ricardo Villalobos or Matthew Herbert achieve. And that’s present in spades on her debut album — but so are huge amounts of funk and trippy personality. The main framework of the sound is a kind of super-tight, super-sparse dancehall bounce, but the digital drums merge into organic sounds — tabla, cello, sax, processed voice — so you can’t tell what’s virtual and what’s real. It’s cerebral and witty, but never once forgets basic soundsystem values of impact and danceability. One for super-close listening, but also — despite its outré experimentalism — for the party.