Believe it or not, living out a life inside and online is not something that was invented during the COVID-19 pandemic. For many the outside world is constantly an unsafe or inhospitable environment, in contrast to an online world that can foster entire communities and intimate, tactile relationships.
This idea is at the core of mydata, the striking fourth solo record from Melbourne experimental luminary Katie Dey. The follow-up to last year’s Solipsisters, mydata is an album-length exploration of a long-distance relationship that unravels into an epic about love, connection, and all the strange, unruly factors that surround those things, from capitalism to sex to internet servers.