MGUN

Manuel Gonzales, typically operating as MGUN, emerged as one of Detroit’s most inventive producers within the city’s techno community across the 2010s. He sustained the wide-ranging, exploratory approach associated with earlier Detroit figures such as Drexciya and Theo Parrish, moving fluidly between atmospheric techno, relaxed electro-funk, and ambient textures, while his club sets resisted straightforward classification even further. A lifelong Motor City resident, he captures every composition exclusively on analog instruments, at times drawing on Casio keyboards retained from childhood because he values the inherent restrictions of hardware over the limitless choices offered by digital workstations. Nearly all of his material is committed to cassette in a single pass, yielding the raw, lo-fi character typical of outsider-house labels such as L.I.E.S. (Long Island Electrical Systems).

His earliest recordings appeared as one member of NSNT PRJCT, the duo he formed with Detroit techno prodigy Kyle Hall. Their 12" EP Laygo My Faygo surfaced on Hall’s Wild Oats imprint in late 2010. Performing at the time under the name DJ Konspiracy, Gonzales joined legendary Detroit collective Underground Resistance for extensive international tours. In 2012 he initiated a series of 12" EPs under the MGUN alias, beginning with Harmnear on Wild Oats and The Upstairs Apt. on the U.K. label Don’t Be Afraid. Late that year The Near Future appeared on The Trilogy Tapes and received extensive praise throughout the underground dance-music press. Over the next two years additional releases came via Berceuse Heroique, Third Ear Recordings, and Fit while Gonzales maintained a global DJ itinerary. After a complete break in 2015 he returned in 2016 with Gentium, his first MGUN full-length on Don’t Be Afraid; the album combined tracks recorded between 2007 and 2010 with newer material. A second album of eclectic, abstract party music, Axiom, followed in 2018.