Biography
The Gaslamp Killer operates out of Los Angeles as a DJ and producer whose wide-ranging approach encompasses psychedelia, world music, dubstep, and left-field hip-hop. Long tied to Low End Theory—the influential weekly devoted to experimental hip-hop and electronic sounds that many view as the heart of the city’s beat community—he maintains a close link with Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder Records and first appeared as a producer through several EPs issued in the late 2000s.
William Benjamin Bensussen was born in San Diego, California, and took his performing name from the Gaslamp District’s downtown bar scene, whose clientele he found repellent. After moving to Los Angeles he quickly embedded himself in the metropolis’s vast underground party circuit, eventually securing a resident slot at the weekly Low End Theory night that led to a run of club-backed podcasts. He also put out multiple mix CDs, among them Gaslamp Killers (2007), It’s a Rocky Road (2007), I Spit on Your Grave (2008), Hell and the Lake of Fire Are Waiting for You! (2009), and All Killer (2009), the last of these serving as a label showcase for the London-based world-psych imprint Finders Keepers Records.
His production career began in earnest with the 2008 split single “The Killer Robots” alongside Free the Robots on Obey Records and the self-released EP My Troubled Mind in 2009. After the 2010 self-released Death Gate EP and a joint 7-inch with Daedelus, he issued his debut album, Breakthrough, on Brainfeeder in September 2012.
In 2013 the Gaslamp Killer teamed with the Heliocentrics for a 12-inch EP on Now-Again Records and with Jungle by Night for a 7-inch single on Kindred Spirits; he also featured on a split 7-inch with Computer Jay for the Hit+Run label. The next year he delivered the double picture-disc 12-inch Break Stuff, containing fresh tracks plus two sides of control tones for Serato DJ software. In 2015 Bensussen released Live in Los Angeles, a concert document credited to the fifteen-piece ensemble the Gaslamp Killer Experience, and later that year a collaborative 7-inch with Mophono appeared on CB Records. His second studio album, Instrumentalepathy, came out on his own Cuss Records in September 2016.
William Benjamin Bensussen was born in San Diego, California, and took his performing name from the Gaslamp District’s downtown bar scene, whose clientele he found repellent. After moving to Los Angeles he quickly embedded himself in the metropolis’s vast underground party circuit, eventually securing a resident slot at the weekly Low End Theory night that led to a run of club-backed podcasts. He also put out multiple mix CDs, among them Gaslamp Killers (2007), It’s a Rocky Road (2007), I Spit on Your Grave (2008), Hell and the Lake of Fire Are Waiting for You! (2009), and All Killer (2009), the last of these serving as a label showcase for the London-based world-psych imprint Finders Keepers Records.
His production career began in earnest with the 2008 split single “The Killer Robots” alongside Free the Robots on Obey Records and the self-released EP My Troubled Mind in 2009. After the 2010 self-released Death Gate EP and a joint 7-inch with Daedelus, he issued his debut album, Breakthrough, on Brainfeeder in September 2012.
In 2013 the Gaslamp Killer teamed with the Heliocentrics for a 12-inch EP on Now-Again Records and with Jungle by Night for a 7-inch single on Kindred Spirits; he also featured on a split 7-inch with Computer Jay for the Hit+Run label. The next year he delivered the double picture-disc 12-inch Break Stuff, containing fresh tracks plus two sides of control tones for Serato DJ software. In 2015 Bensussen released Live in Los Angeles, a concert document credited to the fifteen-piece ensemble the Gaslamp Killer Experience, and later that year a collaborative 7-inch with Mophono appeared on CB Records. His second studio album, Instrumentalepathy, came out on his own Cuss Records in September 2016.
Albums
ANANDA
2024
Heart Math
2020
Instrumentalepathy
2016
The Gaslamp Killer Experience Live in Los Angeles
2015
Helio x GLK
2013
Breakthrough
2012
Death Gate
2010
My Troubled Mind
2009
Break Stuff
2009
Singles
