Earlier this year, plygid, an experimental dance music virtuoso, guided audiences on a cosmic exploration with "Sensory Shell." This album, seamlessly blending jungle, IDM, and ambient elements, painted a futuristic audio landscape set in the year 3000. Following a summer steeped in Brooklyn's lively club scene, plygid returns with the mesmerizing sequel, "SSH: Remixes."

Featuring 11 reimagined tracks, including three by plygid and eight by a diverse array of underground dance artists from across the United States, "SSH: Remixes" is a testament to the collaborative heartbeat of the music industry. The selection of collaborators was deliberate, spotlighting the talents of queer, trans, and POC-identifying artists. This project embraces spontaneity, resulting in a mixtape-like collection united by the thematic thread of Sensory Shell.

Coeval Magazine speaks with plygid about the shaping of his musical abilities and we find out everything we need to know about his latest offering "SSH: Remixes."

Can you tell us about your early musical influences and how they shaped your interest in experimental dance music?

I feel like I had a pretty winding journey in terms of music taste, moving to the US as a pre-teen listening heavily to hip-hop and diving into more sample-based production works that imparted a lot of texture, roughness and cinematics and synth-based hip-hop (like Hyphy music from the Bay Area) that had a lot of natural groove and euphoric sounds. I also got into downtempo, ambient, and dub techno at some point, which helped me dive deeper into creating moodier sonic textures and space-building when first taking production seriously. Eventually, when I came to listen and produce forms of dance music it felt natural to integrate production techniques from other genres. I guess it became 'experimental' in that way.

Can you describe your creative journey in crafting this distinctive sound, combining jungle, IDM, and ambient?

I think this sound (and this project) came from a particular time in my life when I was listening to those genres, but I've always been fluid in making different kinds of music. In any case, I've come to approach production with atmosphere in mind so the flow of the song sort of gets informed by the initial pads or samples I use. A lot of times, the atmosphere or sample gets taken in different directions and I'm trying to piece everything together. I think I've found that chopped drum breaks help to magnetize disparate elements well -- like trying to contain something breaking apart. Maybe the unpredictability and visceral part of this process creates the IDM part, though I'm not even sure what IDM means (any electronic music that gets 'heady' and vaguely sounds like Aphex Twin?)

We've heard that "SSH: Remixes" features a diverse group of collaborators. What inspired you to highlight artists of queer, trans, and non-white identities for this project? And how did their contributions enhance the album's overall vibe?

The purpose of remixes was to encourage others to make a sound of their own from the original album's stems. Looking into the electronic scene today, a lot of things are commercialized and not as intentful as they can be, and a bit voyeuristic, not giving back to the surrounding community or understanding the necessary context that gives the scene its life and sound. I think there ought to be more centring electronic and dance back to its foundational roots which is in queer and black culture, as dance music (and the rave scene) was a product of systemic pressures and diaspora. I'm hoping that this becomes more of the norm instead of a highlight.

The remixes on "SSH: Remixes" seem to have a sense of community and shared inspiration. Could you share a bit about how you encouraged your collaborators to add their creative twists to the source material?

The community aspect felt sort of natural since for a number of the tracks we reached out to friends or friends of friends to do remixes. It was interesting because for example after reaching out to someone I would notice that they were performing at a rave that was hosted by a friend of a friend. Or just learning that someone I had met over the weekend knew another person who was on the album.

As far as the content, I definitely hoped the remix project took on a life of its own, so I asked contributors if they could re-name the tracks or being able to mix multiple tracks, not having a definite genre or goal in mind (e.g. 'botched' with egosystem remixing two tracks, 'negative sp8ce' and 'h3avensgate', or Akari taking the field recordings in 'peripheral visions' and really bringing it out in his remix).

Speaking of giving the project a life of its own, we're giving the stems of the original Sensory Shell album away free for anyone who buys the Bandcamp release (all proceeds from the remix album will be redistributed to good causes), so the sounds can live outside of this project too.

Multi-talented producers Akari and disctr4k deliver deep house remixes of "peripheral visions" and "sirens." How did their 90s-era influence fit into the larger vision of the album?

The vision of the album was to let remixers take the stems and run with it -- it was refreshing to hear 90s / deep house takes on the project, I wasn't expecting it either and they enriched the space where the remix album fell in. Akari and disctr4k are such talented producers who can cook up multiple genres well, so both of them making house tracks was refreshing.

"Sensory Shell" and "SSH: Remixes" both seem like they would be immersive experiences when performed live. Do you have any plans for live shows or events to bring this music to your audience in a unique way?

No plans, but open to it! I recently did an event with CHICHI's NYC that showcased some of the music and visual work of the album, but a live show dedicated to it would be interesting. I've been trying to get more into audio-visual work more directly, trying to add to my toolbox of creating immersive experiences (like through 3d renders, responsive visuals, or even mixed reality) since they're such good mediums to translate ideas.

As the album closes, you take us on a journey with "END OF DAYS." Can you tell us about the creative process behind this jungle cut and what you hope listeners take away from it? Also, what are your plans for future projects beyond "SSH: Remixes"?

Actually, that was originally part of the first track (1THATINEED // daylight) which I eventually broke off into a separate thing on its own. You can hear it in the arpeggio synths (sampled from 'extasy') and vocal loop in the beginning which I think was from a bootlegged 00's R&B vocal pack. When I made that remix it was also around late spring/early summer; I was bumping a lot of Jersey club, so the kick pattern of the song was heavily influenced by that. Then I messed with some jungle pads and put some breaks and ambience around it. The core vocal sample ("This is the end of days…") was I think from a bootleg Memphis Rap vocal pack.

While making it I was picturing this dark, doomlike scenario where everything is falling apart around you and things are a bit dissociative, but in a humorous way (e.g. visualized someone cooly smoking a little cig while the world collapses around them). I think it's sort of like an end-credits sequence but with a hopeful cliffhanger…

(Maybe at the end, the apocalypse left a few lucky sprouts that were able to bear the weight of those world-ending traumas around them and they photosynthesized all that destructive energy into something more communal, reflective, and more sustainable)