OK EG marks a decade by launching their own label, GEKO
The Naarm/Melbourne-based duo arrive with their own imprint to celebrate the project's 10th year.
“To mark a decade of collaboration, friendship, love and music,” Naarm/Melbourne-based duo OK EG have announced overnight the launch of their own label, GEKO.
The duo, made up of artists Lauren Squire and Matthew Wilson, has for the last ten years steadily built a name for themselves not only at home, but globally, releasing a wide variety of cult releases on labels like Midgar, Kalahari Oyster Cult, NAFF, Kia’s Animalia and Cirrus imprints, Wax’o Paradiso and Steeplejack.
Across each, the duo have demonstrated themselves as artists totally dedicated to the creative exploration of their own sound and an unwavering commitment to the underground arts community.
Fresh off the back of un:send festival, of which both Lauren and Matthew are core organisational members, OK EG’s brand-new label GEKO is set to only deepen that commitment further.
In their own words, “GEKO is a platform for the duo to stretch out, freed from outside influences and in total control of the creative vision.”
Its first release is none other than an EP by OK EG themselves, simply called ‘GEKO01’, and, thus far, perfectly encapsulating the label’s goal to provide “high functioning dance music that bristles with confidence, expressed in vivid colour.”
The first listenable track from the release, ‘Fracture’, is a calm, driving piece of techno that demonstrates the refined space and textural nature of OK EG’s productions and offers a grounded tease of GEKO’s future.
Speaking with Mixmag ANZ, Lauren and Matthew shared that each track on the release was written with a different location in mind. ‘Fracture’ was based around Japan’s PARAMOUNT; ‘Spiral’ and ‘Surge’ were both written before NSW’s Soma Festival as an experiment in pitch-bending and heavy post-processing of percussion, in an ode to American producer Mike Parker; and ‘Monument Stone’ for Norway’s much-revered Monument Festival.
In sharing a recording of their 2025 Monument appearance, the festival shared at the time, ”In the moment of performing it at the festival, we felt that everything came together. The crowd, the music and the site connected, and it happened just as we’d imagined it.”
The release’s art has been developed by Dutch artist Tharim Cornelisse, a longtime collaborator with labels like Animalia and Woody92’s Omenwapta, while GEKO’s logo was designed by Italian multidisciplinary artist, designer, and Midgar label head, Severja.
With so much experience under their belt and so many years of collaboration to draw from, it’s immediately clear that Lauren and Matthew’s approach to GEKO will be one that many other labels take years to understand.
As not only a collaborative duo of many years but also a couple, their work will no doubt benefit from the deep understanding that such intimate relationships provide.
‘GEKO01’ releases in full digitally and in a limited vinyl release on Monday, February 9.
