bEEdEEgEE – Sum / One

Experimentation is risky by nature, and too often the results can be sloppy, disquieting drivel. On paper, the seemingly attention-deficit audio salad that clatters and hisses from the outset of Sum / One might flirt with such an outcome, but fortunately Brian Degraw’s solo debut is a unified and focused swarm, plump with varied virtuosity.

Drawing on the textures and pallettes of his electronic work in Gang Gang Dance, Degraw – as bEEdEEgEE – channels an unabashed, unfettered vibrancy and sonic recklessness from track to track, segueing through static crackle and vocal snippets. The soft pop of Empty Vases slides into Overlook’s exotic worldbeat, which in turn funnels into the record’s synth revivalist centrepiece (F.U.T.D) Time Of Waste, where Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor witters on about shagging over a mutating, restless backdrop. If this album is an experiment, it’s one that clangs with industrial noise and whirrs with myriad hybrid effects, like some gene-spliced chimera that’s escaped the lab.