IN THE MIX – DYCIDE

Forget “yo” … Say “IO” (in fact: “I – O”).

Dycide is a true Jack of all trades, from DJing to producing to designing to managing… His name evokes the young generation of talented artists from Munich; a bunch of inseparable friends, aware enough to see music and hear colour…

They’ve “dycided” to join their forces into a collective from which emerged the project “IO”. At the head of it, Dycide, MTRL & Polygonia developed a vision, a sound, a concept.

Hyperactive, they eat art from breakfast to bedtime, living probably artistic dreams during the night. Coming from the DnB environment, they’ve polished their sound to become a meticulous organic musical experience, well-appreciated in the scene for being subtle and authentic. It’s the youth, taking up its quarters with great humility & legitimacy among our well-established labels.

Through his advanced sound design, Dycide, in particular, shapes his music like a sculptor. A bit like a tech-noise punk can become deeper than deep artists when controlling his digital screams, the ex-DnB producer, converted into a deep techno composer, brings very efficient rhythmic patterns into his new musical playground.

The young man designs the other layers – melodic & atmospheric – like a goldsmith, giving a fascinating experimental touch to his work. His profound artistic mind, also unveiled through his “homemade” postmodern artworks, adds a certain elegance to the final result. All the ingredients are combined to build rich mental tracks, opening many levels of understanding. The album Mond for instance, Dycide’s most accomplished creation, is a very interesting puzzle to solve…

Thus when our inspired artist releases a mix, it’s a bit like having a whole museum to explore, with the soul fed from getting an intimate private tour.

① The track selection

Here comes a mix with Dycide’s own tracks, labelled as “autobiography”. This is literally it; an invitation to visit Dycide’s world and by far the most accurate representation of it: elegance, smoothness, subtlety, everything is inside & introduced with delicacy. Dycide always refines his music, this mix maybe even more. 
A glimpse into the track list shows some new collaborations. This is not really a surprise to see one with Claudio PRC: the master’s fresh new project 012 aims to be an artistic platform more than a label, a vision also shared by IO’s three musketeers.
This is also not a surprise that “The Memoir”, curated by Hypnus, found interest in Dycide’s work. On the label wizard Ntogn’s own words about the qualities he’s looking for: “Besides conforming somehow to our sound, the person’s music should have an immediately gripping sensation of authenticity. (…) Equally important; the person should be humble and have his or her heart in the right place.” (Orb Mag, 2019)
“The Memoir” and its “pages” is a direct pass to Ntogn’s fantasy & poetic world, but also to the level of his great critical ear. It’s certain that getting a slot in the venerable project also touches Dycide: “No other mix series presents an artist so personally. Normally, you just play the stuff you are into currently, but regarding The Memoir, I think the involved artists are presenting their most intimate sound, looking for being fully perceived artistically & emotionally” he says.

② The management of the energy

The subtlety within Dycide’s tracks can also be found in the mix: it seems linear at first listening, matching well with the will to privilege the mental side, but if you bring your ear closer, you can sense a very subtle build-up, adding a gentle emotional response, with its climax at 56:00. It’s not an explosive one, but more an invitation to slowly wake up from the meditative state.
Regarding the game of tension, all the artists from IO seem to have synchronised their minds on a very specific way to play it. This is particularly obvious for Dycide, MTRL, Kaf & Epsilon. In their mixes, the kicks are almost always set in the background, increasing immensely the trance effect, not disrupted by the bounce of the bass frequencies. As a result, time flies very fast when getting lost in the various paintings of the museum, which increases the discomfort of the climax: pushing the last door comes with the impression that the mix – and the visit – was too short (but it also gives the motivation to restart it).
Such an approach to the spacial resonance is also interesting psychologically, as it demonstrates the humility of IO’s artists and shows through their natural common sensitivity a link of their deep friendship.

③ The technique of mixing

Dycide is a well-experienced & accurate producer, bringing his own tracks to the mix, so without any surprise, the transitions are fluent & precise, even if we noticed a tendency to overuse the bass line cutting technique. No clash of melodies either; the maestro plays on the edge with the harmonies sometimes, such as at 36:55, but the risk is well-dosed and it gives a human touch that spices up the journey. Technically, nothing ejects the listener from the journey and getting lost in it is done very safely.
On another positive note, Dycide has accomplished a high technical & artistic feat: the DJs who attempt to integrate piano music in a mix almost systematically rush into a brick wall, bringing an unbalanced off-topic vibe and killing the consistency of the journey. But Dycide’s approach, consisting of cooking it in a minimalist, jazzy and dreamy way, as well as making it repetitive during the 21 first minutes, protects its high touch of elegance & contributes to making the mix very unique.

How Dycide is able to deal with his large number of activities is a mystery for us, we’ve tried to unveil it a little bit:

Regarding how busy you are, what does one of your typical days look like from morning to bedtime?

A typical day for me is to get up and go to work. After that, I try to fit as many tasks as possible into the small chunk of time left. This could be writing music, practising piano/guitar, or doing work for IO and other projects. And of course, you have to relax at some point, so sometimes I just end up playing a few video games or doing similar things.
I am also currently composing a video game soundtrack and have started to teach electronic music production, so most of my weekends are similar to my working days.

What do you think of the quote “Nobody is too busy, it’s just a matter of priorities”?

Well, I think that is very true, but there is definitely the problem of having too many priorities. All of this would be very different if I didn’t have to work throughout the week, but for the moment I need it to pay the bills. Still, I enjoy my work really much and of course, I would like to find a way to do everything in parallel which, of course, is unhappily not possible. For the moment, I try at least to cumulate almost everything, which results in “being busy”.

I’ve always known you “busy” since day one: bring us into the history of your evolution, from when you put your hands on a DAW for the first time until now, to show us that it’s worth being busy…

I started electronic music production when I was 13. I guess at that moment I used most of my spare time to learn music production, which I should have used to study and prepare for school. Nonetheless, I managed to get my diploma somehow and started going to university afterwards. This was the moment where the ideas about IO grew and where I met most of my label mates. We all had a lot more time these days compared to now, so I guess it was the perfect condition to start the label. Shortly before finishing my bachelor’s degree, I started to work full-time as a sound designer & audio software developer, which I am still doing up to now. So as a general matter, I would say it is worth being busy with the things you are passionate about, since it is the only real way to pursue your goals.

1. Dycide – In Between Thoughts [Unreleased]
2. Dycide – Adytum [IO]
3. Dycide – Initiation [Norite]
4. Dycide – Untitled [Forthcoming 012]
5. Dycide – Metastasis [Unreleased]
6. Dycide – Fluctuation [Lowless]
7. Dycide – Inflation [Lowless]
8. Dycide – Inner Revelation [Unreleased]
9. Dycide – Raijin [Lowless]
10. Dycide – Floating [Lowless]
11. Epsilon & Dycide – Habalmas [Forthcoming IO]
12. Dycide – Thales [IO]
13. Dycide – Observance [Unreleased]
14. Dycide – Between The Ocean [Dycide]

DYCIDE: Facebook, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Instagram, Discogs, RA
THE MEMOIR: Facebook, Soundcloud
IO: Facebook, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Formaviva, Youtube, Instagram, Discogs, RA