We caught up with indie-dance act CLYPSO for the third instalment of the Rekorderlig Sauna Sounds series.
Having pricked our ears when she burst onto the scene back in 2016, afrobeat-infused electro artist CLYPSO has been making waves with her unique spin on dance music. Her worldly melodies, combined with silky beats and traditional percussion, offer an interesting alternative to the straight up club-ready electro music that all too often dominates dancefloors.
Fittingly, her description of her sound is as interesting as her tunes. “Yeah, I think it’s on my Facebook page – troppo, chili flakes,” she says shortly after her Rekorderlig Sauna Sounds performance. “I’m glad I found that three word phrase, because that’s exactly it. It’s a bit of spice, it’s flakes in the way it’s really scattered, like when beats aren’t hyper-produced in any way, shape or form. And troppo, because it could be crazy, it could be tropical.”
Taking to the stage solo – with the responsibility of getting the room dancing – is something many musicians would find pretty daunting. It’s taken time, as well as the invention of a new persona, for CLYPSO to feel comfortable in that role. “I would love to have lots of people on stage because I think the energy is really different but you know, it’s just the way it is. But, yeah, I’ve gotten used to it. It’s an alter ego. So I step on stage and it’s different, I’m not really me anymore,” she says.
Hitting the sauna for her Rekorderlig Sauna Sounds performance, it’s easy to see why she’s been lighting up venues around the country. Her sonic collage of genres is inescapably energetic and addictive, and we can’t get enough. “It’s funny because I’m not normally a fan of saunas. So it was interesting to actually perform in a sauna. It was steamy!”
You can catch CLYPSO performing in Melbourne and Sydney in October and November (info here)
