Lex (Athens) on ‘Lab ’94’, Radical Soundz and the Musical History That Never Leaves You
There are records that reference the past and others that seem to carry it around with them. For Lex (Athens), the distinction matters.
More than two decades spent immersed in dance music have given the Greek DJ and producer a considerable vocabulary to draw from. Chicago house, disco, soul, techno, jazz, Italo and countless records encountered through Athens’ clubs and his influential Radical Soundz record shop have all left their mark. Yet when those sounds resurface in his productions, he has little interest in deliberately recreating them.
His latest EP for Delusions Of Grandeur makes that particularly clear. Across four tracks, Lab ’94 connects formative experiences in Athens and Berlin with the increasingly loose, organic production style Lex has developed today.
The title itself leads back to Alsos Club in ’90s Athens, and a first encounter Lex remembers in unusually stark terms.
“The thing I will never forget is the first time I set foot in Alsos, when my life changed in a second. I mean that literally! Before going there, I was a pretty dodgy, kind of aggressive teenager, and somehow that place completely changed my direction immediately. I’ve carried that with me ever since.”
He later discovered that Akylla, now a friend and one of his musical idols, had played Lab, Alsos’ smaller stage. As one of the DJs Lex credits with introducing US house music to Greece, that connection gave the title another layer.
“Akylla is one of the first djs to bring US house music to Greece and in a way Lab 94’ reminds me a little of his sound, especially the Full Organ Mix.”
Crucially, Lex does not consider the record an exercise in revivalism. “I wasn’t trying to make a retro record or recreate the sound of the 90s. Its much more personal than that. I think the connection is more about a feeling and a memory, rather than consciously trying to reproduce the music of that time.”
That relationship between memory and instinct runs deeper through his story. In the early 2000s, Lex founded Radical Soundz, the Athens record shop that became both a meeting point for the city’s electronic music community and the centre of his own musical education.
“Running Radical Soundz was the most important part of my musical education,” he says. “I was surrounded by records every day, but more importantly, I was surrounded by people with very different tastes — DJs, producers, collectors and customers — and everyone had their own idea of what made a great record.”
That environment taught him to listen beyond genre, focusing instead on groove, arrangement, sound and feeling. It also helps explain why Lab ’94 can move between Chicago house, hip house, jazz, gospel and cosmic influences without settling comfortably into any one of them.
“I love all these styles but somehow I always try to avoid making the typical Chicago House or the typical Italo-Cosmic etc track. All these influences are somewhere in the back of my mind, and when I’m making a track I’m not thinking of them.”
Another strand of Lex’s past emerges on ‘Friday To Monday’. The track features Boot Slap, although Lex is quick to clarify that describing him simply as a long-time collaborator gets their relationship backwards.
“First of all, Boot Slap and I are long time friends rather long time collaborators. Actually these are the first tracks we’ve made together, so the connection goes back much further than music.”
Its title remembers their early-2000s experiences in Berlin, when weekends could stretch considerably beyond their conventional limits.
“You could go out on Friday and suddenly find yourself still going on Monday, moving from one place to another and meeting all kind of people along the way.”
Again, the intention is not reconstruction. What survived was the freedom, friendship and “slightly chaotic feeling” of those years.
That looseness also increasingly defines how Lex works in the studio. Live percussion and improvised keys are given space throughout the EP, introducing fluctuations that programmed music can struggle to replicate.
“For me, that human element is important. I don’t necessarily want everything to be perfectly tight or predictable. Sometimes a slightly unexpected note, a different accent or a small rhythmic imperfection is exactly what gives a track its character.”
Even the two versions of ‘Lab ’94’ resulted from that willingness to follow accidents. The B3-led Full Organ Mix actually came first. Only after a friend suggested trying a dub did Lex experiment with Boot Slap vocals originally recorded for ‘Friday To Monday’.
“They just clicked,” he remembers. “It wasn’t something I had planned from the beginning, it was more one of those moments in the studio where you try something almost by accident and suddenly It makes sense.”
The EP’s final detour comes alongside DJ Rocca on ‘Back To Mad (Cosmic Version)’, reconnecting Lex with the Italian producer for a track that pushes towards Italo and cosmic territory.
“I feel genuinely humbled and honoured that Luca is willing to make music with me. It’s definitely a highlight of my career!”
Their shared grounding in disco, house, Italo and electronic music provides a common language, but Lex believes their differences are equally important.
“Working with Luca brings a different energy and, importantly, an element of surprise. That’s often where the most interesting things happen.”
After more than 20 years, surprise still appears fundamental to the way Lex approaches music. Athens itself has transformed during that period. The tightly interconnected ecosystem of clubs, DJs, record shops and dancers he remembers has given way to something more globally connected, bringing greater access and international exchange while weakening some of the city’s distinct boundaries.
He refuses to romanticise one at the expense of the other.
“I don’t necessarily think one period was better than the other. Things have simply become more global, and Athens has followed that change like most other cities.”
There is a similar refusal to romanticise his own musical past. The experiences remain there, from Alsos and Radical Soundz to Berlin weekends and decades of record collecting, but they function as vocabulary rather than instructions.
These days, Lex is increasingly comfortable removing elements rather than adding them, allowing drums and bass to interact and musicians to disrupt the precision of the machines around them.
“I’ve become more interested in the groove itself, the interaction between the drums and bass, and what a live musician can bring to a track.”
Whether that defines his next chapter is another question. Lex has spent too long absorbing different sounds to suddenly impose boundaries on himself.
“The live elements and the simplicity are things I’m enjoying right now, but they’re no rules.”
And somewhere beyond Lab ’94, another change is already beginning.
“There are already ideas in my head that are taking me in slightly different directions. So I think the next shift will happen naturally.”
Grab your copy of Lex's latest release here.
