Having grown fond of sampling vocals from R&B divas, the UK underground took the next logical step and began singing themselves. Acts like Katy B and AlunaGeorge represent a generation for whom Aaliyah and Amerie typify pop normalcy, a generation who watched the avant-garde crystalize into the mainstream. So there are large swaths of 10.2 that, in 2014 (or, frankly, 2004), scan as fairly catholic takes on minimal, electro R&B.\r This is where the material falters, at once hewing too closely to R&B's sonic template while pulling its emotional punches. Cooly G's "Obsessed" details an infatuation but censors itself: "Looking at me/ Watching me/ Wanna f--- me". Jessy Lanza's "5785021" turns a phone number into a chorus, tightroping the line between coy and corny. On tracks such as Terror Danjah's "You Make Me Feel" and Morgan Zarate's "Pusher Taker", the vocal performances struggle to keep pace with the tricky, intriguing productions. Too often, dubby reflections and breathy whispering are substituted for more traditional melisma and inflection; the effect isn't seduction, but apprehension.\r 10.2 fares better when it engages R&B on more ephemeral terms. Burial's inky transmissions dissolve the late-night, call-in loneliness of Quiet Storm R&B. The Inga Copeland tracks that bookend the album—first with Dean Blunt and then Kode9—are intoxicating, her flatlining, anti-diva voice bristling against seasick arrangements, the finest marriage of the label's avant-garde instincts with pop forms. DJ Rashad's "Only One" skirts the R&B conversation entirely: it's the rare footwork track that trades freneticism for tenderness. DVA's "Just Vybe" features Fatima, the best, most idiosyncratic singer on 10.2; she offers up a tart melody that feels like a proper UK take on welterweight R&B. Its charm exposes how labored and earnest much of 10.2 is.\r Electronic music's interest in R&B mirrors a more general trend in underground music, one that has recently extended further into the past, touching most recently on Jam & Lewis' glassy funk (Kelela's Cut 4 Me mixtape being the most prominent example). But it's safe to say that, as yet, the songwriting and vocal components of the genre have failed to inspire the same unbridled creativity as the productions. Hyperdub's relationship to the form is less developed and less guided than their stewardship of footwork or UK club music, and it leaves 10.2 in the lurch, lacking clear purpose. At times it feels like dabbling, on the part of both the label and the artists (see Ghostface's bolted-on guest appearance on Morgan