Drumcell

Moe Espinoza drew his earliest musical influences from punk, grunge, and industrial sounds. He first gained experience performing in hardcore bands around Los Angeles. His outlook shifted decisively after attending a rave in 1995. He purchased a drum machine, secured work at a Hollywood recording studio, and redirected his songwriting toward dance music by drawing on the studio’s collection of classic synths and Roland drum machines.

After issuing a series of tracks on assorted labels, Espinoza co-founded the Droid Behavior collective in 2001 with Vangelis and Vidal Vargas (aka Raíz) to help launch Los Angeles’s techno community. Recording as Drumcell, he made his first appearance on the collective’s Droid Recordings imprint with the Genetix EP in 2003. Over the following years he maintained a steady schedule of DJ sets and production work while expanding the Droid brand; the label meanwhile released material by Drumcell alongside records from Audio Injection, Dustin Zahn, and Acid Circus.

In 2009 the Cell Injection EP, a joint project between Drumcell and Audio Injection, began receiving regular plays from Speedy J and Chris Liebing. After forming a connection with Liebing, Espinoza issued his first CLR release in 2012, the Split Structure EP recorded with Brian Sanhaji. The following year CLR also put out his debut album, Sleep Complex, credited to Drumcell, along with the single Disturbance. Additional releases for the label, including Departing Comfort, followed over the next several seasons before Espinoza concentrated on his experimental ambient project Hypoxy1a and the Bl_k Noise label. The Flux EP, featuring Luis Flores, surfaced in 2016, and the various-artists compilation Negative 2_Part 1 appeared a year later.