Face A/B

Where To Now? records are proud to present Beatrice Dillon’s follow up release to the widely well received ‘Blues Dances’. This three track 12” sees Beatrice step things up a gear in terms of intricacy, experimenting wildly to add to her already astute palette of timbre and rhythm.

‘Face A’ leads the record with the unmistakable skronk of saxophone cutting and jamming over the skeletal pulse of Beatrice’s signature dubbed out techno landscape. Initially the inclusion of saxophone acts as an aural abstraction or diversion to extract a little freedom from the pumping cavern of dark dub techno atmosphere punctuated with the mechanical juddering saw-bass, but as the piece develops and we become deep into the groove the inclusion of wild sax snorts trips us up and become the focus itself as new levels of complex melodic and rhythmic detail become apparent within this otherwise structurally obedient space. Taking it’s cues from Rabih Beaini, Miles Davis ‘Big Fun’ era, Dresvn and Keith Hudson, undoubtably ‘Face A’ is a compelling, complex trip… heads down but arms flailing.

‘Face B’ continues the theme but takes the listener far deeper into the cavern. Here the concern is more the effects of space within song, a moment where Beatrice allows herself to move away from the floor to find a little more room for playful experimentation. The saxophone is further treated with a plethora of effects to compliment the array of dub signals that scatter and skip around the basin.

The record closes with ‘Sonnier (Walk in the light)’ which strangely somehow manages to feel jazzier in its components, even in comparison to a pair of tracks riffing on a manipulated free-jazz sax part. It sounds strangely unsure of its world, adding to this whole loosely slung, loping feel which somehow fits amongst the stern, brooding, and efficient synth play. Beatrice masterfully manages to create a piece here that grows in intensity without ever increasing in pace or texture, every drop is intended to stir the listener a little more than the last. There’s a sense throughout all the pieces of having rhythm imposed or even inflicted upon the listener but this is certainly not a conflict of ideas… there is optimism, harmony and above all - wild groove nestled within Beatrice’s world of mutant shuffle.
credits
releases 21 August 2015

Written and produced by Beatrice Dillon, tenor saxophone on ‘Face A/B’ by Verity Susman.
Mastered by Rupert Clervaux at Grays Inn Road.
Sleeve drawing Sam Porritt, 'We're tripping myself up’, 2012, ink on paper, courtesy of the artist.