Introducing: BRUX

BRUX recently signed music to the experimental electronic label, LUCKYME, but the Australian-born artist has been working towards this goal for many years. Not only has she been refining her music-making skills throughout that time, but she also wrote the name of the Warp Records imprint on a manifestation board. Then, like so many other manifestations she’s written down in the past, this one came through.

“Everything that's happening at the moment I've really tried to manifest. I know that sounds a bit woo-woo, but it really does work. I do it every month. I'll write out a brain map of what's gonna happen as if it's already happened. It's crazy to look back. I keep all my books of me manifesting. I can tick off things that are really specific. It's this weird thing that I've tapped into,” BRUX, whose real name is Liz Maniscalco, tells Beatportal from her New York City apartment.

She’s been calling in LUCKYME releases for a while because the imprint's nondescript style aligns with her formless approach to her own productions. Her single she just signed, “CA$HED UP,” produced with Baauer and Surya Sen, is a punchy, intentional break tune. “How Could U,” her collaboration with fellow Australian rising star Ninajirachi, channels computerized grit into succinct halftime beats. “EMBERS,” a cut from her Fool’s Gold EP, GRAVY, infuses hyperactive vocal samples into stuttering deep tech.

No matter what sonic region Maniscalco may explore, the sound is always unmistakably BRUX. For a time she didn’t know if making music this expansive was the right call, but the LUCKYME signing has validated her journey.

“It's mind-blowing to me to be on a label that I've looked up to for so long. It's been a compass for taste,” Maniscalco says. “In the past, I've been unsure. Am I not getting the gigs because the music's not quite right? Self-doubt creeps in over the years. But I'm going to keep going on this path because it's working. Even though it's slow, I have to remind myself. I don't want to be a flash in the pan. I wanna be doing this till I'm 85. I'm never gonna stop.”

Maniscalco has gone through many different artistic phases on her path. Growing up in Sydney, she was inspired to pursue music at a very young age after seeing the success of her older brother, the mainstage house music producer, Hook N Sling. 

She started her career going down the indie route, focusing on singing and songwriting under the name Elizabeth Rose. Then when she shifted over to BRUX,  she was initially anonymous, presenting herself behind a dark, sinister aesthetic. In this period, she was concerned that being a woman would present obstacles to her growth and respect as an artist, but after the support of fellow women in the scene like Nina Las Vegas, she first revealed her persona with her 2022 EP on Deadbeats, Take.

Now, three years later, she is comfortable in her skin as a musician and as a person. She’s producing music that is authentic to her and expressing herself visually through a glammed-up fashion sense exhibited in the shiny red coat she’s donning in the “CA$HED UP” video.

“If anything, I'm a bit more relaxed. I can relax my shoulders a bit more, and just keep going,” Maniscalco says. Furthermore, in this present era of BRUX, she’s joined the ranks of so many artists she admires who are also signed to LUCKYME. 

One is a fellow Aussie, the alternative electronic singer and producer, Kucka. Then a layer up, Warp artists like Hudson Mohawke, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, and Oneohtrix Point Never have been huge inspirations to Maniscalco as well. Especially Oneohtrix Point Never, whose work in film and other mediums is a model for where she wants to take her career in the future.

“There's just so many eclectic artists who are doing so many innovative, edgy releases that have been the most influential pieces of the puzzle for me,” Maniscalco says. “It's crazy that all of those artists that I've looked up to felt so distant at one point. It's so weird to understand that they're my peers, but it's great. I don't know how else to describe it.”

Another LUCKYME artist she’s admired for a long time is Baauer, real name Harry Bauer Rodrigues. Their meeting is also owed to a certain amount of cosmic intervention. In December of 2023, alternative beat master Machinedrum booked Maniscalco and Rodrigues to play a massive back-to-back session in Brooklyn. 13 artists were on the lineup with stalwarts like Nikki Nair, Jacques Greene, Bianca Oblivion, and more sharing the decks. 

With all that talent swirling around, Maniscalco and Rodrigues just happened to trade off some tracks and the connection was made.

“He's just one of those people that I've randomly come into orbit with,” Maniscalco says. From there, they learned they were both Brooklyn-based, remained connected via social media, set up a few production sessions, and “CA$HED UP” was the result.

They aligned on an interest in exploring film, their unhindered taste, and an unabashed nerdiness for production and sound design. But beneath all of that, they are both artists who overcame previous iterations. Maniscalco shifted from her indie project and broke through the walls of anonymity. Rodrigues moved beyond his typecast reputation for “Harlem Shake” and other festival trap bangers.

“It was just like two Lego pieces. We just fit together, and we're gonna keep working together,” Maniscalco says. “There's a similarity between me and Harry of that childlike curiosity. There's a lot of goofing around in these sessions. Trying to do weird ideas and not second-guessing it in the moment. Just doing it.”

After seeing the universe come through for her time and time again, Maniscalco is second-guessing herself less than she ever has in her life. Wherever her curiosity will take her and whatever she feels called to manifest next, it’s already in the bag. So, she may as well keep making music she loves along the way.