- Lux Rec is an excellent Swiss label that's been chugging away since 2010. Run by Daniele "Cosmo" Barbiero and Dominik "Faber" Schmid, its main thing is dusky, vampiric techno, but it's also dabbled in acid, Italo and noisy, left-field sounds. So far Lux Rec has mostly featured unknown artists—Echo 106, Joe Drive, Lunar Lodge, Visonia, Cold Colour and many others. Their latest taps someone more familiar, but still completely in line with their sound: Golden Pudel resident Helena Hauff
Hauff happened to be my introduction to Lux Rec—I saw her play back-to-back with Cosmo at The Golden Pudel in summer of 2012. Shatter Cone shows her indulging her love of acid, with fairly strong results: "Accidie" and "Severe Slash" are both vicious club weapons crafted in sonorous, analog textures, and "Furthermost Nevermore" is an epic slow cut, lumbering along at 103 BPM. But the pick of the litter is clearly "Hiemal Quietus," the one track where Hauff eases up on the 303. Rising from a bed of reverb-heavy drums, its spooky organs and descending bassline make it wonderfully dark and theatrical. The other three are solid, but this one is Hauff at her best.
TracklistA1 Accidie
A2 Hiemal Quietus
B1 Severe Slash
B2 Furthermost Nevermore