MUZAI Records
MUZAI Records is a home for the strange, the noisy, the beautiful, and the unclassifiable. We are an independent label and collective dedicated to documenting and sharing music that refuses to sit still — from ambient drift and fractured electronics to raw punk energy and surrealist sound collage. Whether you are a longtime follower of underground scenes or a curious newcomer looking for something beyond the algorithm, this site is an open door into a world of sound that rewards deep listening and adventurous ears.
Here you will find new releases, in-depth features, artist interviews, and occasional live documents, all gathered under one roof. We believe that music is more than a product: it is a way of thinking, a form of resistance, and a shared language for those who feel out of step with the mainstream. Browse the artists, read the stories behind the sounds, and let yourself get lost in the catalogue.
Artists and Releases
The heart of MUZAI Records is its roster of artists, each with a distinct voice and vision. From the glitchy, sample-heavy constructions of Colonel Troutman to the sprawling, genre-defying work of Friggen, the label embraces music that challenges easy categorization. Recent and notable releases include Struggles with Syntax by Ticky, a collection of fractured electronic pieces that explore the limits of communication; Murina – Stuff Galore, a video and audio document of dense, playful experimentation; and FADOHT – Axonal Firing Squid, a deep dive into abstract sound design and rhythmic deconstruction.
Other highlights include Death Genesis – Death Genesis, a self-titled statement of harsh, hypnotic intensity; Duhkqunt – Reuben S and Duhkqunt – Space Communion, two sides of a project that moves between industrial noise and cosmic drift; and Horror In Clay – Live From Toad Hall, a raw live recording that captures the energy of a band committed to uncomfortable truths. Explore all artists to find your own entry point.
Features and Interviews
Beyond the releases, MUZAI Records publishes regular features that go behind the scenes. The A Moment With series offers intimate conversations with artists, exploring their creative processes, influences, and the ideas that drive their work. Recent interviews include A Moment With – Friggen, where the project’s mastermind discusses the making of Naiv. Super., and A Moment With – Death Genesis, a frank discussion about extremity and expression in sound.
The Struggles with Syntax series continues as an ongoing exploration of language, code, and music, with video pieces like Jung Dreams and audio works like Petrichor and Monday Bluez. These pieces blur the line between composition and documentation, inviting listeners to consider how meaning is made and unmade in real time.
Video and Live Documents
MUZAI Records is committed to preserving the visual and performative dimensions of its artists’ work. The site features music videos such as Duhkqunt – The Catastrophe and Murina – Stuff Galore, as well as live recordings like Horror In Clay – Live From Toad Hall. These documents are not afterthoughts but essential parts of the artistic statement, capturing the physicality and immediacy of performance.
We also publish occasional previews and premieres, such as Preview – FADOHT – Axonal Firing Squid, giving listeners a first taste of upcoming releases. Videos are embedded directly in the relevant posts, so you can watch and listen without leaving the page.
Columns and Curiosities
In addition to artist-focused content, MUZAI Records hosts a range of columns that reflect the label’s eclectic interests. Who’d’ve Thunk?! is a series that celebrates unexpected connections and overlooked gems, with episodes like Generation Extinct exploring the intersection of nostalgia and futurism. Colonel Troutman – Spotlight on the Mood and Colonel Troutman – The Dinosaur Bit offer idiosyncratic takes on sound and culture from one of the label’s most distinctive voices.
These columns are not just filler; they are part of the MUZAI worldview, where curiosity is a virtue and no topic is too obscure. Whether you are interested in the philosophy of noise or the history of a forgotten synth, there is something here to spark your imagination.
Join the Conversation
MUZAI Records is more than a label — it is a community of listeners, makers, and thinkers. We encourage you to explore the site, listen deeply, and reach out if something moves you. The About MUZAI Records page offers more background on our mission and approach, and the Contact page is always open for feedback, submissions, or just to say hello. (Please note: we do not list personal contact details here; use the contact form on the site.)
Thank you for visiting. Turn up the volume, and let the music do the talking.
- About MUZAI Records
MUZAI Records is a UK based independent record label, formed back in 2009 in Auckland New Zealand.
- All Artists
Browse the full roster of MUZAI Records artists.
- Colonel Troutman
Information regarding Colonel Troutman has proved to be difficult to obtain. The majority of his biography, history and mission have been redacted by international organisations in the interest of…
- Dusker
That might be both the best introduction to a press release you’ve read in the past few months, but equally as important it should be a question on many person’s lips.
- Faux Machismo
Faux Machismo are a two-piece performing stoner-witch-doom-grunge and hail from the fringes of Leeds’ city centre.
- Flogging a Dead One Horse Town
A page that appears to be unreachable.
- Friggen
If you were to combine modular synths, ambient electronics and some of the tenets found in the post-rock movement, you’d probably end up with Swedish producer FRIGGEN.
- Horror In Clay
Their words: “Auckland’s premiere four-headed homunculus, born of shit and seafoam.“
- Internet Death
Internet Death is a New Zealand native “Cyber-Hardcore” project created by Finlay Anderson.
- Murina
Genre-tripping duo from Barcelona.
- P.B
Initially joining MUZAI Records stemming from an Instagram conversation, P.B's first incarnation was the harsh noise terrorist King Shoji, unleashing Black Rainbow Machine on a limited repurposed…
- Struggles With Syntax
London based quartet Struggles With Syntax label themselves as “regret rock.”
- Who’d’ve Thunk?!
We here are MUZAI Records founded the label back in 2009 with one guiding A&R principle; “would a younger version of ourselves follow this band.”
- News Archive
MUZAI Records has spent a decade documenting the fringes of experimental music, and its news archive reads like a field guide to the strange and wonderful.
- SLOW DECLINE: MUZAI at 10.
It started as a lo-fi affair in a flat in Auckland’s central suburbs. Ten years later, it continues out of a townhouse in Leeds and has returned to being a lo-fi affair.
- Who is Herring Farmer?
“I find it easier to write press releases when I’m not the subject/topic of them. I’m hardly a salesman and that self-promotion I once had in New Zealand kind of levelled out as I got older.
- WHO’D’VE THUNK?! – GENERATION EXTINCT
We here are MUZAI Records founded the label back in 2009 with one guiding A&R principle; “would a younger version of ourselves follow this band.” In the case of Who’d’ve Thunk?!, the answer is an…
- PREVIEW – FADOHT – AXONAL FIRING SQUID
With the release of a new Flogging A Dead One Horse Town record taking place this Friday (September 17th 2021), we’re happy to provide those of you curious to discover what else asides from…
- COLONEL TROUTMAN – SPOTLIGHT ON THE MOOD
Given music should be fun, rather than a constant voyeuristic look behind the scenes, with Spotlight On The Mood, out today (April 23rd 2021), we’re choosing the latter option on this occasion.
- COLONEL TROUTMAN – THE DINOSAUR BIT
Colonel Troutman is an enigma; whether that is intentional due to his background or perhaps a little put off by the idea of people actively engaging him.
- DUHKQUNT – WEST MANSION
Idle hands are the devil’s tools, so the saying goes. So what does one do when they’re currently living in lock-down during a pandemic when the video games become boring and the daily 30 minute…
- DUSKER JOIN MUZAI RECORDS
That might be both the best introduction to a press release you’ve read in the past few months, but equally as important it should be a question on many person’s lips.
- STRUGGLES WITH SYNTAX – MONDAY BLUEZ
We’ve become so accustomed to video conferencing since the COVID-19 pandemic that the word “Zoom” no longer is just something found in the panels of comic books.
- DEATH GENESIS – DEATH GENESIS
Detroit based composer Pete Bastian has been a prolific entity on the experimental music front, to say the least.
- Album Releases
MUZAI Records has always been a home for music that refuses to sit still. Our latest batch of album releases pushes further into the outer reaches—where electronic textures, industrial weight, and…
- Albums
MUZAI Records has always been a label that defies easy categorization, and its album releases are no exception.
- EPs
At MUZAI Records, the EP has always been more than a stepping stone between single and album—it’s a distinct format that lets artists take risks, explore a focused idea, or simply blow off steam…
- Single Releases
MUZAI Records has always championed the strange, the singular, and the sonically adventurous. Our single releases are no exception.
- Singles
MUZAI Records has always been a home for the strange, the uncompromising, and the sonically adventurous.
- DUHKQUNT – SPACE COMMUNION
Sleeper hits don’t get any sleepier than the last release from Leeds based “musician”, DuhkQunt. It’s the Rip Van Winkle of MUZAI Records releases over the past few three years.
- DUHKQUNT – REUBEN S
DuhkQunt’s 2021 finishes with the release of the third single from their EP, Space Communion – and amidst the sardonic, tongue-in-cheek nature of the video lays a more serious message.
- FADOHT – AXONAL FIRING SQUID
It has become somewhat of an annual tradition for New Zealand experimental noise-rock duo Flogging A Dead One Horse Town to add to their already brimming discography with MUZAI Records.
- FAUX MACHISMO – ARTEMISIA
Around the early 1620’s, Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi created one of her most striking works – Judith Slaying Holofernes.
- FRIGGEN – NAIV. SUPER.
Across Europe, we’re coming out of the cold, cheerless Winter into Spring; the climate thawing out, the crisp mornings that get a little lighter and the greenery of nature starts to prod through from…
- HORROR IN CLAY – LIVE FROM TOAD HALL
The roar of discordant guitars, the anguished yells and fractious vocals alongside that primal, tight, foreboding rhythm section…
- INTERNET DEATH – NAME OF THE LAW!
In these times where the “new normal” is something the world is being forced to adjust to, it’s to be expected that there is a lot of frustration, anger and angst that has made it’s long overdue way…
- MURINA – STUFF GALORE
MUZAI Records are pleased to announce the release of Stuff Galore, the newest work from genre-tripping duo Murina, out December 3rd 2021 on cassette and digital services.
- PLASTIGLOMERATE/TERRITORIAL GOBBING – CROCODILE MAYONNAISE
Over the years the Plastiglomerate & Territorial Gobbing series has set the bar for immersive, action-packed, cinematic FPS gaming, and no matter what camp you’re from there’s no denying the…
- STRUGGLES WITH SYNTAX – PETRICHOR
After struggling with syntax, Struggles With Syntax are set to release their debut album, Petrichor, this November.
- STRUGGLES WITH SYNTAX – TICKY
Christmas is just around the corner, which means it’s time to start thinking of those New Years’ resolutions after (hopefully) a festive meal; and those resolutions are usually to get fit and shed a…
- Interviews
In the ever-shifting landscape of extreme music, few acts have carved a niche as distinct as Death Genesis.
- Interviews Archive
Welcome to the MUZAI Records Interviews Archive, a growing collection of in-depth conversations with the artists, visionaries, and outliers who define our label's uncompromising spirit.
- A MOMENT WITH – DEATH GENESIS
Hailing from Detroit, Michigan, Pete Bastian humbly announces during each release that he is merely the conductor of the equipment he uses.
- A MOMENT WITH – FRIGGEN
Much in the same vein as how we met P.B (fka King Shoji, Death Genesis), Niklas Larsson came to our attention through Instagram as he slid into our DMs.
- Music Videos
MUZAI Records has long been a home for artists who treat the music video not as an afterthought but as an essential extension of the song itself.
- Videos
In the ever-evolving landscape of independent music, visual storytelling has become as vital as the sound itself.
- DUHKQUNT – THE CATASTROPHE (MUSIC VIDEO)
We have been pleasantly surprised by the attention that our resident, sardonic “electronic music” producer DuhkQunt has received upon the release of their second EP – simply titled II.
- MURINA – STUFF GALORE (VIDEO)
Already earning radio rotation within the UK and airplay across Europe, Barcelona-based noisy-grunge duo Murina today release their official music video for “Stuff Galore.”
- STRUGGLES WITH SYNTAX – JUNG DREAMS (VIDEO)
“There are cameras nowadays that have been developed to tell the difference between a squirrel and a bomb” – George W Bush