Dasychira contributed track ‘Beauty Contest Gift’ to AQNB’s even my dreams don’t go outside that was released on April 22. The compendium is a download-only release of new music and visual works from artists that have been featured on the editorial platform in the recent past, as well as those helping to define our scene into the future.
Across the United States and throughout various unsuspecting digital spaces, Dasychira has been hosting events as part of unseelie, a cyber-fantasy themed collective that utilize magical realism and speculative fictions to create space for outlier networks in the queer underground. Notably, the crew recently held a festival in IMVU called nu:cenosis with the likes of Kamixlo, Swan Meat, Total Freedom, and Arca.
Dasychira’s discography often draws from the same thematic used by the unseelie crew. Their latest record xDream cycles through titling references from the Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon series, while simultaneously evoking a style of MIDI-baroque music, abundant with ambient motifs and prominent vocaloid appearances. Dasychira’s track ‘Beauty Contest Gift’ is simply a continuation of their complicated opus.
Chimed melodies contrast with MIDI-synth chords before Dasychira’s vocaloid overtakes the setting. The digitally obscured vocal riffs glide over kick and snare punches in a manner reminiscent of Tomggg’s 2015 track ‘Farmers Market’. In the weeks anticipating the release of the compendium, Dasychira sent over the lyrics sung through the vocaloid:
follow your gift
ribbon tied round neck
blush
its more than a beauty contest**
