Lux is exploring some of the darker elements of electronic music at the moment. Moody Sunday misery, the anxieties of the unwanted, the raw horror of routine. These latest 12”s employ sounds of the past but are fresh and new in their audio commentary. Menacing music that will make a deep and worrying impression on the listener.
A rougher edge has entered the Lux Rec camp since they unleashed their MRT series. True, the Swiss label was never really puppies and pop but records from the likes of Tuning Circuits, Frak and Helena Hauff have ushered in a heightened level of angst, distemper and discontent.
It can be hard to pin down what this rise in rage translates into. Savage Grounds’ Unpleasant Music for Unpleasant People and Over Fences, with their twisted melodies and tortured mechanical rhythms, are one way to define this gnarled sound. This latest pair of EPs are undeniably cut from the same cloth.
Gavin Russom is a curious artist. After starting out on DFA with disco-treated house he seems to have turned to the harsher side of electronics. His work on Entropy Trax and last year on L.I.E.S. is from the brooding margins of techno, and it’s from these peripheries that Psychic Decolonization arrives. Sounds are scratched, deep scores dug into chords to produce grizzled and gashed tones. “In Wolfskins” rumbles, driving on steady basslines whilst bleeps, coarseness and echoes ruminate. An EBM and New Beat undercurrent runs through the 12”. Clouded in grey, “Blood Codes” is a building piece of body music, percussion clattering and clamouring under synth strains. “The Shelter of Palms” comes from similar shadows. Pulsing notes and the crack of a clap are drenched in heavy bass. Acid swirls squirm, bending and guttering under the immense pressures applied by Russom. “Let The Bones Speak” is perhaps the odd track out. A gusting work of ambient drone with a long psychological side glance into an analogue abyss.
The most recent on MRT is, well, less known. I had never heard of Bruno Belluomini before Agony, and that’s not surprising. With a patchy discography it’s anyone’s guess how Belluomini was uncovered, but I’m glad he was. The three titles might give you an idea what you’re going to encounter: “Agony”, “Indelible Marks” and “Depravity And Shame.” The title piece is an intense affair. Staccato sounds judder, tripping over one another before a thick 4/4 is laid down. Circles within circles are created, tension rising into a looming and lonesome work. The flip is introduced by the bruised and cracked visage of “Indelible Marks.” Riddled with pain, the track is a brutal and battered endeavor. “Depravity and Shame” is the least harrowing of the trio. Sour 303 loops are imprinted onto a warbling wall of resonance for a stark and sinister close.
Lux is exploring some of the darker elements of electronic music at the moment. Moody Sunday misery, the anxieties of the unwanted, the raw horror of routine. These latest 12”s employ sounds of the past but are fresh and new in their audio commentary. Menacing music that will make a deep and worrying impression on the listener.
Both releases are available on Lux Rec./MRT.
