Lydo

Hard-hitting, propulsive techno from the mind behind X-TRA.Services.

Brooklyn’s Lydo takes to the plates for the latest Crack Mix, picking us up not far from where Copenhagen’s Sugar left us a couple of entries back in the series. Unsurprisingly the two shared a stage at the last X-TRA.Services party in New York, where Lydo invited two of the Danish city’s finest purveyors of hard and fast techno (the other being Schacke), mirrored by herself and her guest from NYC, Akua of Discwoman. X-TRA.Services is the party arm of Lydo’s rave brand, which also sells functional rave attire like balaclavas and day-glo bum bags as X-TRA Gear.Services.

Lydo’s Crack Mix evokes the dark smoky rooms ubiquitous in Brooklyn’s semi-licensed rave scene, driven by unrelenting power but also a playful rave nostalgia. Choppy tracks sampling both Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill and Linkin Park’s Crawling are both given a run out – resulting in a moody kind of energy. Still, the brakes come off frequently, meaning this is one you can zone into or bang out on your speakers.

Speaking via email, Lydo tells us, “This mix feels like a journey to a past life – a time when I was riding a big high; this mix is about happier spirals. It’s a transmission from a different place than I am [in] now but it’s a special spiral still.”