DV-i – InteractSTYLE
InteractSTYLE
DV-i
EP
Electronic
Liam Murphy
February 1, 2026
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February 1, 2026
Tracks in this feature
Tracks in this release
DV-i has whipped listeners from the breakneck speeds of hovering spaceships to the welcoming, responsive world of a handheld console without pumping the brakes on her creativity or verve at all.
The next-gen handheld consoles of the early 2010s promised gamers an evolution beyond the revolution of the Nintendo DS and PSP. Now, a decade-and-a-half on from their release, DV-i recalls that futurist gaming style in several two-minute loops, in a release that pushes past sound and into visual and even UI.
This time, it’s not drifting around racetrack corners; it’s shifting from the welcome menu to settings. It’s not time trials, it’s touchscreen responsiveness. Here, speed has been replaced with a slick but quaint sensibility.
This is what we hear as the world of interactSTYLE welcomes us. “Allegory, object… mediation,” her voice repeats, that last word communicating the pace of problem-solving in this beautiful UI. All simple and without trouble. The surrounding instrumentation does stutter, but it is less the defunct ramblings of an erroneous program, and more the sounds of the digital emulating the organic almost perfectly. The textured pads and iridescent sprite-like sounds communicate frosted glass textures and geometrically freeform landing pages – a new kind of digital lifeform.
After the bursting brilliance of 2024’s Re:Connect, it’s fair to say that speed only comes naturally, DV-i, and she revisits that motion blur mood, following up with interactSpeed, as incisive D&B beats pierce bubbling bass and synths. But it doesn’t feel like an offcut from her last project, as there’s a progressive and welcoming energy that floats atop the pacy percussion. Speed inside the small gaming system.
Somehow, DV-i combines two different kinds of console, the quaint but impressive world of the 3DS – chock-full of chibi heads and interactive fun – and the more austere elements of the PS Vita that tried to put a boutique console experience into people’s hands. interactSubstance communicates this strange combination, feather-light synths conjure images of happy avatars, with glassy notes soundtracking our taps and pinches. The more serious elements come in the genuine feeling of progression and otherworldly promise conveyed through the meandering dreamy melody, the drooping monophonic synth and the stuttering but pearlescent original motif that returns. Even in the artwork, we can squint and see both sides of the next-gen handheld revolution represented, the hyperreal of the avatar world and the line-drawn, sharp futurism of the background.
And this artwork shows that interactSTYLE is no mere homage. This project is as much its visuals as it is its ambient two-minute loops, with beautifully made UI themes for your handheld console. Though this aspect may not be a draw for some listeners, it is a testament to how much dedication DV-i has to a project. Rather than providing several fragments, the artist collaborates with visual artists to bring these loops to life for gamers. There is care instilled in these sounds. They are to be enjoyed, of course. But DV-i invites us to welcome them into our recreational routine.
Gaming and music are interlinked in so many ways, especially with the DAW-heavy production styles modern music uses, but within interactSTYLE, we see the two fit together seamlessly in a different way. As DV-i is buoyed in her sonic creative vision by the futurist elements often employed by handheld consoles, she offers listeners and gamers the chance to drift along with these brief loops, and even reinvigorate their handheld experience.
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