"Dye"
"Dye"
Under the guise of DyE we find ‘Taki 183,’ an enigmatic debut Album from Juan de Guillebon; long time bass player to the demanding training of the Parisian electronic scene - Joakim & The Disco, Botox and Maestro. DyE has said of ‘Taki 183’ that it ‘is a personal and progressive urban design’ already popular with artists as diverse as James Murphy, DJ Mehdi, Erol Alkan and James Holden. Sometimes dreamy electro-pop or excessive shoe gaze, and then often introverted dubstep and hallucinogenic nu-disco. On a more Highbrow level, DyE invests several research fields into his music, such as harmonic instrumental radicals and disarticulated cosmic melodies and synthetic songs! But fundamentally what we discover is a journey through DyE’s immediate sphere of influence, with the first port of call being his younger self.
Meet 14 year-old DyE, he is playing guitar in a Tropical Disco band with Malian Musicians, but then leaves to study sound engineering, cello and electric bass - precocious at best. Luckily for us he found time to mess himself up by joining a rock band, of sorts, as bass player for Joakim’s band around 2005, keeping him on the road for 3, playing every major city around the world and recording on many of Joakim’s albums. In his own words ‘it was some kind of Golden Age.’ But it was around 2007 when the infamous Web 2.0 appeared; the period in the history of the Internet, where the user became, not just the content, but the star of the data world. DyE is fascinated by the infinity opportunity to be both anonymous and popular from any place in the world. As a call and response to this ‘golden period’ DyE created a little project called ‘One Week, One Track!’ which saw him upload a new track to MySpace every week. Artists such as Zombie Zombie, Cosmo Vitelli and Feadz all waxed lyrical about this new artist, but DyE said nothing of his diabolical plan to be both anonymous and popular to anyone.
Luckily Tigersushi staff members Charlotte and Matthias discovered for themselves the work of Joakim’s bass player and advised the label to sign his work. The first release was the 12” ‘Imperator,’ but again, no word from DyE. In reflection he comments that during this period his music was “a total mystery to me. I was more attracted by blogging as an art of fact then speaking of my music.” So when the second single came ‘Cristal d’Acier’ DyE assimilates that his mood was much more “wonky” and as such the release communicated itself with its ‘Remix from DJ Mehdi and a sleeve made of Gold and Cylco Glasses.’ Later DyE contributed the track ‘Nike’ for the Tigersushi 10 Year Anniversary release which saw him in a “smells like teen spirit kind of mood” completing the blue print for ‘Taki 183.’ This arrived around the same time of a small sabbatical from the “Night Excess” giving DyE the clarity to realise much of the album was complete; ‘Vader,’ ‘Taki 183’ and ‘Star Vac’ were all born during One Week, One Track,’ whilst ‘Nike,’ ‘Cristal d’Acier’ and ‘Dark White’ all featured as catalogue releases on Tigersushi. But this is not a compilation of tracks, this is collection of tracks “to create my sci-fi universe: each track is the colour of a mood, made of a time, experience and loss.” The sentiment couldn’t be more true, with ‘Immortals Only’ mapping a period of loss to DyE and ‘Matthias & Charlotte’ suggesting a milestone on a great journey to a happier place. Between these two key tracks is ‘Hole In Ocean,’ which is a nightmare that DyE enjoys relishing in, possibly suggesting the inevitability that one day this body of work will be released, which brings us to date.
‘Taki 183’ was recorded using analogue equipment such as a Roland TR606, Moog Source and a Korg Poly Six into Pro-Tools. DyE plans to take the album on the road and is already booked at Social Club, Pompidou Centre and Le Machine. Lovers of the album can expect to see DyE “pushing the limits of spectral delirium and Tightness.” After all, in his own words, he is “the man who speaks to the ears of robots.”