William Blake wrote, “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” The Gaslamp Killer has kicked in the doors between genres his entire career, charting infinite pathways that connect hip-hop, rock, electronic, psychedelia, and more music pulled from deep crates of dust-kissed vinyl. At Low End Theory — the internationally-renowned Los Angeles club night and beat scene mecca he co-founded — his devastating and unpredictable resident DJ sets were shaman-like ceremonies, his wiry limbs mixing, cutting, and scratching records with surgical precision while the bass coursed through his flailing body.

On 2012’s Breakthrough, Gaslamp transmuted the spontaneous chaos of his heartfelt and genre-spanning live shows into a revolutionary album that encapsulated the breadth of the beat scene while expanding its boundaries.

The album’s core is “Nissim” (later featured in Grand Theft Auto V). An ode to Gaslamp’s deceased grandfather and older brother co-written with Amir Yaghmai (of Julian Casablancas’s The Voidz), “Nissim” is also a poignant reminder that you don’t need floor-quaking bass to move millions. Gaslampbrings the beat scene to the bazaar, accompanying Yaghmai’s emotive plucking of the yiali tambur with a propulsive breakbeat barrage. As he does on the rest of Breakthrough, Gaslamp synthesizes his disparate influences to create intensely personal music, the impulsiveness of his live sets sacrificed for an even deeper connection. So long as we have the means of playing music, Breakthrough will show listeners that sound is limitless.

Nissim was written by GLK & Amir Yaghmai and is now available as a limited 7” on thegaslampkiller.com along with a bunch of other commemorative merch celebrating 10yrs of his first album Breakthrough.


Video by Mitch Pond with inspiration from Alejandro Sordi's original "Nissim" Artwork