Bleep

On her debut LP Workaround, vital modern techno practitioner Beatrice Dillon builds something new from the bass-heavy turns taken by the British scene in the 2010s. The focus on sub and space across these tracks places Workaround in the lineage of labels like Hessle Audio, Where To Now? and Livity Sound - the first two of which, of course, have hosted Dillon releases in the past. Indeed, the desire for Dillon to be an active participant in the communities around modern British club music is evidenced by the presence of producers Batu, Untold and Laurel Halo among Workaround’s credits.

However, Workaround’s list of guests also reaches out into musical arenas far beyond British techno and bass styles. The album also sees Dillon slicing and dicing samples from tabla player Kuljit Bhamra, Jonny Lam of the Pharoah Sanders Band, cellist Lucy Railton and the kora of Senegal’s Kadialy Kouyaté. Blending such a varied array of sonic archetypes and traditions is no mean feat, and as such it is to Dillon’s credit that she manages to create such a uniform sonic world here. From the deft and danceable percussion programming and chirruping synth chords of the more dancefloor-friendly numbers to the detailed, almost electroacoustic craft one finds in shorter entries such as ‘Workaround Five’, everything on this album is imbued with a refreshing compositional verve. It makes for a strangely exuberant record, one to consider alongside the work of Dillon’s fellow innovators Rian Treanor and Call Super.

Workaround, the highly-anticipated debut LP from Beatrice Dillon, presents a new British techno sound for a new decade.