Murex – Massacre
Murex is a Swedish artist based in Stockholm, and “Massacre” is her debut single, out now on Young, the London label home to Sampha and Jamie xx. She self-produced it in her studio, and it shows: the track moves on its own terms, amorphous and unhurried, built from left-field electronics and what the press materials describe as Nordic pagan influence. Avant-pop is the shorthand, though that label flattens something that feels more genuinely difficult to categorize.
The song depicts hunger and self-destruction, a pull toward damage framed not as tragedy but as a kind of reckoning. There’s a brutality to it and also something close to beauty, the two things sitting in the same space without resolving. Background vocals come from Elvira Anderfjärd, the mix is by Marta Salogni, and mastering by Heba Kadry, a combination that gives the track both weight and precision.
Murex has been writing for other artists before this, and that experience is audible. She’s not figuring out how to write a song; she already knows, and “Massacre” is her deciding what kind of artist she wants to be on her own. Part of that is a deliberate choice about visibility: she appears in the self-shot video and her pencil drawings are on the artwork, but partially obscured. “It’s not about disappearing or being anonymous”, she says, “more about loosening the grip of appearance, and letting the work exist without being defined by it”.
It’s a considered debut, and the restraint is what makes it interesting to me. Many artists announce themselves loudly; this one holds something back and makes you lean in.
