In an interview, label founder Daniel Castrejón explains that, on an operational level, his work has barely changed over the years, even though the world of music is now completely different. There is continuity on every level: »in the scope« of the work he puts into Umor Rex, as much as »in the values and philosophy« he pursues. Despite the remarkable variety of sound niches it works over. The releases never feel arbitrary, but bear a clear signature.
Castrejón is a graphic designer by main profession. In the context of the label, too, he sees aesthetic stringency as his »perhaps most important task«. The tension between complexity and reduction, he says, is characteristic of Umor Rex’s visual language. »The label has always been about holistic artistic statements.«
Primal Forms Neon Orange Vinyl Edition
Noor Red Vinyl Edition
Tuning The Wind
Peripeties Of Stray Intention
Genre categories, by contrast, interest Castrejón less; at the centre of his curatorial work is »something less tangible: a sense of psychedelia, humour, curiosity and playfulness, reflected in different ways.« A considerable part of the back catalogue, which currently comprises 165 titles, is sold out – something that is undoubtedly also due to their visual appeal. On several levels at once, Umor Rex offers a counter-model to digital arbitrariness – today, when streaming platforms are flooded with AI-generated content rubbish, that seems more important than ever.
From MySpace into the world
In the label’s digital-only early years, the internet stood for unprecedented possibilities. »We belonged to the MySpace generation. Online platforms opened up new ways of making contact. Suddenly it was just as easy to connect with artists in Iran as with someone from Mexico City.«
On a practical level, the collaboration with distributor Anost / Morr Music ensured that Umor Rex also found its audience in Europe – and new artists too. »For me, it is about building relationships and growing with the people whose work I admire,« Castrejón explains. »An on-off release mode was never of interest.«
»An on-off release mode was never of interest.«
Label situationship? Not with Daniel Castrejón.
Two examples from last year illustrate the label’s range: Concepcion Huerta’s El Sol De Los Muertos – first released on cassette in 2025, the album is now part of an anniversary series on vinyl – brings tectonic phenomena together with ideas of political resistance. Dark ambient sounds and a rumble rising up from the depths seem calm on the surface, yet the sounds extracted from magnetic tapes gradually reveal something abyssal.
Quite different is the self-titled album by the Berlin duo Bella Wakame, which is also being reissued. In the project by Andi Haberl, otherwise drummer with The Notwist, and Florian Zimmer – who also releases on Umor Rex with Drift Machine – electroacoustic textures come together with melodies that are pull-like and yet refined: a wholehearted swarming out onto pop terrain grounded in post-rock.
More closeness
In recent years, there has nevertheless been a slight shift in the focus of this special label – something not least connected to Mexico City’s flourishing cultural scene. »The relationship between technological possibilities and my real life has become more balanced,« Castrejón explains. »That goes along with the fact that I have been able to establish closer contacts with artists from Mexico and Latin America, whose cultural, conceptual and political perspectives are closer to my lived reality.« This is reflected in a number of more recent releases.
Umor Rex is to remain international and multicultural in outlook, Castrejón stresses. For what makes the label work worthwhile is »the possibility of creating a community in which artists from different geopolitical, economic and cultural contexts coexist in the same space.«
