Cara Tolmie describes herself as an »artist, musician, performer, DJ, pedagogue and researcher complexifying the bind between voice and body via mesmerising and uncanny vocalisations«. And indeed, on Body Lapse, she pushes already complex material to the breaking point with her vocals.
For this album, she joined forces with Rian Treanor, who previously merged rapid, polyrhythmic beats with artificial vocal textures on ATAXIA (2019). Tolmie lends Treanor’s hyperactive constructions—blending nervously fluttering Footwork with the rumble of Bass Music—a human face, using her incredibly versatile voice with a precision that complements the music’s architectural logic.
On »Incongruous Diva«, a track that rests on an atonally shimmering base reminiscent of Gábor Lázár, she wails expressively in a Björk-like manner. She meets the restrained Dubstep of »Out Of« with poised spoken-word poetics, while her fragmented voice parts on »Inuti-I« become rhythmic triggers: choppy, stuttering, disoriented—oscillating between song and self-assurance. Think Beatrice Dillon meets Errorsmith.
The standout, though, is the straight-up pop track »My Little Loophole«, which catapults Tolmie’s voice into dizzying heights. With its steady beat, it lands somewhere between Techno and Hyperpop à la FaltyDL. A gem within the album’s experimental design.
