Dekmantel Podcast 156 - Gunnar Haslam

Techno is Gunnar Haslam’s starting point, but the New Yorker often strays way off grid once he gets started. Mostly that happens when in album mode, where he weaves weird melodies into beatless tracks that are laden with drones. When turning out 12”s for the likes of L.I.E.S., Delsin and Argot, he favours a chilly, slithering sound, and as Romans with Tin Man he cooks up elegantly mournful techno that sends you deep into your own mind. The former psychiatrist also plays live with Mike Servito and Justin Cudmore as Hot Mix, so someone who is always evolving and exploring new territory. It’s the same story on his mix for us, which wastes no time in dropping you straight into a bendy, supple techno groove that soon begins to change shape and sound. Along the course of 70 minutes, it becomes skeletal and stripped back, percussive and spaced out then hurried and funky. A pulsing drum line underpins everything while the real drama unfolds in a burrowing top line or mind melting acid squiggle up top. In condensing many different forms of techno into this one mix, Haslam masterfully showcases the breadth of his fascinating sound.