We start presenting our favorite tracks from 2024. More or less in a chronological order we present here the ninth set of tracks.
2024 Best Tracks part 9 (of 10)
lux rec
Abe Schwartz – Schwarze Leidensleider [LXRC52]
Lux Rec number 52 presents Abe Schwartz aka Giulio Parzino, a musician from Milano with strong ties to Zürich. Active since years in the industrial and cassette culture scene he delivers this time 7 astonishing emotional, danceable, yet potently noisy tracks.
Nicolas Balmer – Nein Nein [LXRC51]
Nicolas Balmer hails from Zürich and he is an integral part of the underground alternative music scene there since forever. This record was entirely written, produced and recorded by Nicolas at Zimmerlistrasse in Zürich, between the 21st and 29th of December 2023. A time where everything that could have happen just happened. He poured all that pain and drive into this. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
The Strangler Of The Swamp / Bande Berne Crematoire – Eine Aufnahme voller widerlicher Verderbtheit [LXRC50]
Throughout the 1980s, Michael Antener, born and raised in Bern, Switzerland, initiated an array of sonic endeavours in the realm of industrial, dark, aggressive music. The triple vinyl release is all about documenting Michael Antener’s adventures during that intense 1980s period, comprising materials from vinyl records, cassettes, and live recordings, some of it unreleased. The release also includes a deep dive into Michael’s visual archive of posters, photos, and sleeve artworks. The disjointed, tumultuous body of work presented here marks the testament of a fringe musician who was disruptive and confrontational, keen to shock and alarm people (much to our liking), and who could easily have been lost in oblivion.
Daniele Cosmo B2B Marsman DJ set @ DT CAMP 2022
Daniele Cosmo & Marsman @ Comme Des Larmes 20.10.2022
Nam’s – Chaos [LXRC49]
Naamal M’bae aka Nam’s is next on Lux Rec, namely, number 49. The young musician is all dark and desperation, fast, angry and on point. Song titles are quite explicative of the mood one will swirl into. A 7” with an extremely fresh take on all the things we like. Bitter frustration. Spiralling down into chaos.
E.L.I. – Violence is Bliss EP [MRT011]
E.L.I. lands on MRT shores and pollutes them with all sort of filth. The label second last instalment takes us to Britain and it is one of the most aggressive so far. The distorted screams, the ultra darkness, the violent atmosphere it creates is tinted in black and white by the stroboscopic lights of underground clubs. A perfect mixture of relentless basslines and straightforward rhythmic patterns for the dancers with no cause, with no hope for tomorrow. Places made famous by death and disaster.
Mures – Tools For Modern Times Restraint [MRT010]
Mures are Joshua Cordova and Santiago Leyba. They fit perfectly as MRT010, transporting the label from the cold, grey, drowned in concrete atmospheres of Acid Ernst to the working class heat of the American south. Electronic body music, factory music, machines intensify their rhythm as degrees rise. Hot iron is forged, sweat and black stains cover bodies, hard labor, the struggle and the hammers, tools for modern times restraint. Rare Metal and Workers have just paved the way to that bullet that is Trains of Thought.
Acid Ernst – Ehre [MRT009]
Acid Ernst is the alias of Konstantin Unwohl. He’s reviving the MRT series with four tracks of different qualities. The A side is pushing in every direction, relentless rhythms, depressed melodies coming in waves and sombre lyrics. As to bring sadness and frustration in an otherwise angry techno room. The B side is rather sombre, with a masterpiece that goes by the name Ehering and a dark number called Deine Stiche taten Weh. The perfect starting point to close the MRT chapter, the first of 4 releases that will conclude this adventure.
2021 Best Albums
From the long overdue debut albums of LeRon Carson and Steve Summers, to the revelation of An Anomaly, from the roughness of Filmmaker and Ratsnake to the meditative music of Les Filles de Illighadad, from the established Greek artist June to the very limited synthwave album of the unknown Greek artist Tatat, here are our favorite albums from 2021, compiled in chronological order.
Continue reading “2021 Best Albums”Claus Fovea – Open Eyes Shut [LXRC48]
In 2012 Claus Fovea self released a cassette containing 10 tracks, he was at his Swedish beginnings. 9 years later Lux Rec re-discovered his tape and it still sounded so true and relevant to them that they decided to release it on vinyl. Claus then reworked some tracks, scrap some, and made few new. Florin Buchel mixed them down and Andrea Merlini mastered them. The result is a picture frozen in time, in between now and then, the struggle, and sadness, that fragile construction of hope shattered as time goes by, like nothing ever change. It is indeed, as he sings, just the same song playing all the time. Over and over.
Daniele Cosmo @ HÖR (Berlin) 14.10.2021
Daniele Cosmo – Braid Recordings // 013
Zürich’s Lux Rec co-founder Daniele Cosmo delivers a delightful hour of brooding cold synth recorded during the Summer Camp at Rote Fabrik.
Bound By Endogamy – Walk With A Tumored Dog [LXRC47]
“Walk with a tumored dog” by Bound by Endogamy is the third and final instalment of the 7″ series by Swiss musicians on Lux Rec. To understand this record one needs to spend a morning, after a sleepless night, waking to the junction point in Geneva, where waters meet, leftovers wear their high off and high bridges invite you to make the last jump. One needs to deal with a frustrated environment that only brings out so much anger. One needs to know Kleio and Sam, and their symbiotic take on life.
Nicola Kazimir – Gnade [LXRC46]
The second instalment on the Lux Rec 7″ series comes from Zurich based musician Nicola Kazimir. Fast paced, powerful yet dramatic, shaped by his interests for occult rituals, Japanese weird imagery and fringe politics of life, these four songs are the soundtrack of those long hours spent in haze in his studio next to the Limmat river.
Karl Kave – Leg di bitte a [LXRC45]
Karl Kave makes his appearance on Lux Rec for their first release in 7″ format. Four terse tracks influenced by his past experiences, high and low as they come, tumultuous thoughts and life events. The result is a sombre nostalgia for all that is not there anymore. Coming from Rheintal, a valley on the eastern part of Switzerland, he uses English, German and his native Swiss dialect to sing. Dive into it, meet sadness.
Daniele Cosmo @ Grand Central Festival Antigel X Motel Campo 27.02.2021
Savage Grounds live @ Umbo (Zürich) 30.10.2020
Leroy Se Meurt – Makine Kültürü [LXRC43]
COVID-19 pandemic infectiousness and the relative necessity to put hard distance between people has brought up a wide range of means to cope with it. For some it went by as nothing happened, some struggled with not being able to be social, some were overly social on social medias, some spent it in a total drugged-out haze. Some, like Leroy se Meurt, used it to actually create something. The 5 tracks presented in this EP are the result of that forced stay in, the push towards the outside and the realization that, in the end, there’s nowhere to go.
The Hipodrome Of Music 