Audio: Truncate shows a different side of his techno palette

David Flores, the DJ and producer better known as Truncate, has been a key driving force behind Los Angeles’ techno scene since his first release as Audio Injection in 2007. The project saw him putting out a string of killer records for labels like Droid and Electric Deluxe, but in recent years he’s been more frequently found wearing his Truncate cape. As he told us ahead of his Room Two appearance with EI8HT Records this Saturday, his second guise was born out of a need for “stripped-down, raw DJ tools” at a time when the scene was embracing techno’s bolder side. The eponymous Truncate label has since become one of the genre’s most essential, renowned for its highly distinctive less-is-more aesthetic. On his mix for us in advance of his upcoming date, he shows a different side to his sound, mixing high-powered, modern techno cuts that rarely make it into his bag for the weekend. Download: Truncate fabric x EI8HT Records Promo Mix Tracklist: Kaytranada – Lite Spots Kelpe – Dry Riser Throwing Snow – The Death of Pragmatism ItaloJohnson – ITJ05B1 (Bambounou Remix) Paranoid London – Headtrack James Cotton – Buck! Ego Troopers & Sound Of Stereo – Ghetto Acid (BS1 Remix) Neil Landstrumm – Swing Jerk Truncate – That Thang Assailants – Fracture 2 Submerge & Hiroko – X.SPE.8086 (Truncate Remix) Josh Wink & Truncate – Be Aware Gabriella Vergilov – The Freak Show Delroy Edwards – Untitled Alex Jann – Future Funk Jon Hester – Dimension Seven Vince Watson – Second Wave X-102 – Ground Zero (The Planet) We noticed a message you posted about this mix recently alluding to being open to playing cross-genre. What inspired the approach you took for this mix? I wanted to play tunes I usually don’t get to play at gigs. I get so many promos and a lot of them just sit in my laptop waiting to get played and I found this mix was a good opportunity to do that. I like so many genres and sometimes wish I could play them at shows without watching the dancefloor come to a full stop. So I hope this mix sort of captures that. What was the main inspiration behind the Truncate project after previously working under the alias Audio Injection? Truncate began as DJ tools for friends. At the time I felt there was a lack of stripped-down, raw DJ tool tracks. I started making these and just labelled them as “truncate” with a number at the end, and started passing them around to friends. It then started to gain some popularity so I decided to release a record and see how it does, and it got a lot more attention than I expected. So I just kept going, and it grew into what it is today. How does the Southern Californian scene inform your work as Truncate? Well I like to try to keep Truncate close to my roots in dance music. I was very inspired by Chicago, and that sound was really big when I first started going out in LA. I then ventured into more rave styles like hardcore and gabber, drum & bass and techno, so there could be a little inspiration sprinkled in there as well. But at the moment the techno scene in LA is going strong. Although the sound is heavily dominated by European DJs, I’d like to say I throw in some of that varied flavour I grew up with in the 90s. You recently played back-to-back with Eats Everything on BBC Radio 1. How did that go? We had good fun and I thought it was a good experience. I’d never played back-to-back with Dan but musically I think we worked well together. He has a vast knowledge of dance music, and it was fun throwing in some classics as well as some new tunes. It’s also refreshing not to play just banging techno tunes. This weekend I think I will bang it out in Room Two – I just love playing that room, and the energy in there. I have a lot of new tunes that I want to test out as well, so expect a lot of new music from me! What are you up to through the rest of the year and into 2020? I’ll be finishing up my European tour this month. Then at the end of November I have an event that I throw in LA together with Drumcell and Oktaform called ‘Observe’. We’ll have Ben Sims over and I will play together with him as Assailants. In December, I’ll be going back to South America to make up for some cancelled gigs from when I broke my ankle in July. I will be going to Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina. As far as music goes, there is an upcoming EP of mine that will be released on Pets Recordings at the end of November, and it has a killer remix form DJ Haus!