LYDO

LYDO is a Filipino-born, Vietnamese-American DJ, sound artist, and nightlife organizer based in New York City. A resident at BASEMENT in New York, they run the party collective X-TRA.SERVICES.

Their work explores themes of queer identity, diasporic belonging, and spiritual transformation through syncopation and genre-blending compositions.

Work and life LYDO's upbringing in the Vietnamese diaspora informs their artistic worldview, which draws from postcolonial and queer theory, especially the work of José Esteban Muñoz and Homi Bhabha.

They moved to New York in 2015 and became one of the first residents at BASEMENT, the influential Queens nightclub known for its queer and techno community.

Before establishing themselves as a DJ, LYDO founded X-TRA.SERVICES, initially a practical gear line for ravers that later evolved into a record label and party series.

In 2023, LYDO released their first EP, Hand of God, a collaboration with Brooklyn-based producer Tomás Urquieta through X-TRA.SERVICES. They have since performed internationally, appearing with the MARICAS collective in Barcelona and at major venues such as De School (Amsterdam), Bassiani (Tbilisi), Draaimolen (Tilburg), Tresor, Berlin Atonal, and MoMA PS1.

Style and themes Drawing from both European and North American techno traditions, LYDO's work incorporates minimal 909 rhythms, trance inflections, and experimental. They describe rave culture as a collective, spiritual experience, aligning it with abstraction in modern art and the non-representational power of music and have developed a reputation for rave programming that is inclusive with underground club nights that center queer, trans and non-binary people of colour. Their sound is often characterised by genre-blending with emotional resonance and a refusal to conform to standard 20th and 21st century techno templates.