Decoder
Momentum
Enemy
Has Gautham Garg been sent to earth to save techno? Hyperbole, sure, but it’s starting to look more and more that way. The rising Texan better known as Decoder is one of the most prolific producers working in the genre. Since debuting on Jeff Mills’ Axis label in 2021 (at the age of 17 no less), he’s released eight albums and countless EPs. His hard drive is so full of tunes that at his Berghain debut last year, he played only his own music (and, despite the cringe factor surrounding most DJs’ Berghain selfies, his thank-you post managed to be downright heartwarming).
Quantity is one thing, but it’s the quality of Garg’s work that’s truly staggering, as it’s hard to find a dud in his bag. His music is loopy, funky and trippy with a sci-fi sheen, and while he does mix in the occasional dash of electro (as we heard on this year’s excellent Prakasa LP), he mostly seems intent on reimagining techno in its purest form. It’s as if Richie Hawtin—who, in fairness, brought Decoder out on tour in 2022 and 2023—had kept on playing as Plastikman and never started hawking sake. Decoder’s recent RA Mix provides an excellent primer, and demonstrates how his tunes slot effortlessly into records by the likes of DJ Qu and Maragaret Dygas.
His 2026 hot streak continues with Momentum, an EP on one of the most reliable sources for deep and hypnotic techno, Dustin Zhan’s Enemy Records. An exercise in tension, the record finds Garg stripping his tunes down to the studs. “Photon”—the EP’s best track—puts the focus on percussion, compressing and contorting a 909 into a rhythm that keeps threatening to boil over, but always pulls back right when you’re expecting a drop. Throw in some synths that sound like they’ve been triple-fried in oil and this tune should be catnip for the Dozzy crowd.
The rest of the record is just as good—and, importantly, just as weird. The melody on “Dyslexic,” which skitters in and out of a duet between 909s and hand drums, sounds like it was lifted from a haunted house hall of mirrors. “Flowing” is similarly anxiety-inducing, and though its percussion gets looser and looser as the track goes on, the song’s bleeping arpeggio triggers the same sort of nail-biting nerves one gets while listening to a heart monitor (or, at least, watching the doctors on The Pitt watch a heart monitor).
Will Garg save techno? It’s hard to know what that question even means, let alone what the answer might look like. But listening to Momentum, I get the feeling that wherever the genre is headed, the kids are going to be alright.
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