Beatrice Dillon

I’m starting a thread for her because Workaround is just one of the most impressive and beautiful things I’ve heard in a while and I can’t stop listening to it. It’s one of those rare pieces of music that’s like insanely accomplished but extremely chill. Sharp in the details but relaxing overall. My last time through it I was thinking about how true to the spirit of the best dub it is. I want to hear more. Anyway, talk about Beatrice Dillon.

Where was this thread earlier today, when I was looking for it to post about my still deepening appreciation for this album?

https://open.spotify.com/album/21cSsVlFOhJ8QvF0B6gH9L?si=gjQBZAW1RkG1R8sipPorgA

Also: https://paralaxe-editions.bandcamp.com/album/two-changes-2 - not on Spotify; completely gorgeous and worth investing in

ALSO: https://open.spotify.com/album/6aTmhZUr5AXOr1FmKRumHl?si=OnTVW8aURo-HHwSq8nDA5Q - 'Fluo' especially

Everything she's involved with is worth investigation but Workaround is immense. One of those records that really steals up on you - initially it 'just' sounded lush and fidgety but so much is going on throughout. Hyper-intricate world-building.

I was thinking about how true to the spirit of the best dub it is

Yes! Love this - it tickles your brain for 40 minutes and it's so pleasurable.

Yep great record - great use of space - as implied above.

I'm finding that I'm enjoying much more post-lockdown than I did before (not that I disliked it, but I was thinking of it as much more club-adjacent).

Hyper-intricate world-building.

Yes! Totally. There’s also something about the sound palette she uses that I feel like is really carefully selected to .. be this focused but complex thing that is hard to pin down - sort of a gentle, breathing thing that isn’t less bold, exploratory and rhythmically powerful for it.

probably the best record i've heard this year.

this one is my favourite jam of hers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xzaRDN1hDA

i’ve been constantly listening to workaround, it’s like a safety blanket for me rn

It's a good lockdown album, that's for sure

workaround might be a GOAT piece of production. nothing like it. sounds sort of dry at first but the sense of space and dynamics is masterful; and yet, it's not just about that, it's weirdly playful for its formalism and lush despite the intense brittleness of the sound. and yes, it is a total safety blanket. thank you beatrice dillon

yep!!!!!

it's still my favorite album of the year. i finally got the vinyl from PAN (ordered in may). it sounds incredible. sometimes i think i have a lot to say about it but most of the time i just listen in awe and shake my head in disbelief.

it's a lot of things at once: cool, thoughtful and sensible, formally inventive and playful, gorgeous, funky and earthy, feather-light and agile, deep and dubby, hypnotic and always 'happening' in unexpected ways that wrap around 'space' in a sculptural sense from moment to moment. the indian instrumentation, the pedal steel and the detuned fm synth patches give it some light psychedelia and world-fluency but it also feels rooted in u.s. deep house via those chez damier-reminiscent synth stabs that pop up here and there. it never sounded brittle to me, maybe a little ramshackle in how eg the tabla bits fall in the cracks of the drum programming on the first track, which just feels like a glorious warming up imo (i love how the last bit of that track loses some volume but just keeps being playfully alive for a while). dance music set at 150 bpm usually sounds kinda forced to me but all of the pieces here exist in such a way that the objective tempo is given all of this space- you totally forget about any 'bpm' and it becomes feasible and desirable to move to it.

Thanks for reminding me to go back to this. Nice write-up map!

the wire otm

new 20-minute-long song! https://beatricedillon.bandcamp.com/album/basho

Thanks!!

Here's what I ballot-commented about my gateway:

Beatrice Dillon, Workaround:
A certain dry elegance---"dry" as in: no big show of echo, or room ambiance, other than clarity and just enough bracing fullness, also no bells and whistles, also no fancy track titles, no guest stars that I know of---suggest the tag of New Music or Serious or even High Brow, if those terms are still used at all--but if so it's High Brow like a High Brow greeting card (incl. those designed by young R. Crumb), pop appeal that brushes ears like brows right away:

"minimalism" that I think of as grid-grooves, playing handball without a net except the one in mind, and on a regulation court, nice and roomy---Indian-associated percussive samples and/or realtime new plays encourage me to think of On The Corner, and the whole thing seems like from dance (early inspirations lead to and from subtle, witty allusiveness) to dance (imagined: Serious shaking of tailfeathers tractable fractally, like cigarette smoke in the output of an oscillating fan, at least when the cig's in an ashtray:

this is set and setting, rules and points----I think of David Byrne's music written for Twyla Tharp's choreography, Songs From The Broadway Production of "The Catherine Wheel" (look for the video version on YouTube), and Autobiography [Music from Wayne McGregor's Autobiography], by Jlin,