Photo: Ryan Muir. Used with Permission

Two summers ago, electronic artist Olga Bell found herself bashing out some drums ‘n’ samples in an attic in the Ditmas Park section of Brooklyn with Jason Nazary, one of two drummers she works with. As she describes it, that session was “super lo-fi,” but resulted in one part of what would eventually become “Meaninglessness,” one of many highlights from her recently self-released album, Diamonite. “There was always some drive to it, but in that first incarnation everything was pretty noisy and washy, the beat had that ’90s Timbaland mid-tempo feeling you get from old Aaliyah and Ginuwine songs,” she tells Hive. “Jason and I were pretty happy with this undulating dust-cloud version of the song, but it always felt unfinished and seemed too slow when we played it live.”

Enter her second drummer, Gunnar Olsen, who felt that the song was missing a clubby, dance element — so he took the production from something woozy to something thumping, resulting in a dark, yet melodic tale of finding meaning, situated inside twirling synths and Bell’s soaring vocals.

“Seems fitting for a song that’s goofy and existential,” she says. “Our homage to whatevs-ing.”

Diamonite is out now.