Album Review: This Silence Kills by Dillon

As distant whirs and an understated funk beat get accentuated by a classic '80s electronic handclap, the title track from Dillon's debut album almost sounds like a collation of a variety of styles from across years and locations. Her apparently hesitant singing, close to the mike and sounding a touch uneasy, is contrasted by wordless drone-like calls in the background. With that, This Silence Kills begins the Berlin-based performer's dipping into the waters of fusing a familiar enough piano/vocal approach with a more off-kilter, varied feeling appropriate for a label like BPitch Control.

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With label head Ellen Allien's Dust and decidedly non-dance albums from We Love and Aerea Negrot, it seems like Berlin oddball techno outfit BPitch Control is starting to embrace a pop-friendly streak. The addition of Dillon to the roster seemed like a fairly standard one, especially considering the bumpy techno jam "Aiming for Destruction" on BPitch's Werkschau compilation, and so with the announcement of her debut album, it seemed like we were in store for another album of vocal-heavy, idiosyncratic techno-not-techno. This Silence Kills goes along with that idea with its opener and title track, putting Dominique Dillon de Byington's distinctively warbly voice on top of a backing track with piano and scruffy electronics.

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Captivating music that speaks so very loudly without making much noise at all. Mike Diver 2011 Young, attractive, active in the bustling Berlin electro scene, signed to the always interesting Bpitch Control: Dillon, born Dominique Dillon de Byington, has a great deal going for her before a single second of this debut album is heard. But expectations – beginning and ending with techno, given the label in question’s pedigree – are dashed by a collection which confounds with a beguiling sound somewhere between muted electronica, chamber-pop and torch songs.

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