Portsmouth, U.K., resident Christopher Reeves is the man behind the eerie, playful electronica of the Gasman. Equally influenced by the U.K. rave/jungle scene and classical music, his wide, vast body of work contains complex, breakbeat-heavy rhythms and warped, Baroque-inspired melodies, as well as carefree homages to early acid house and techno. During the 2000s and early 2010s, Reeves was a mainstay of the Planet Mu label, delivering no less than seven albums, including the haunting experiments of 2003's Remedial and the intense breakcore of 2006's This One's for You. Following 2010's Powerpoints, his final Planet Mu release, Reeves' work ranged from intricate piano compositions (2012's Hiding Place and its 2014 sequel) to albums such as 2016's Aeriform which reflected a nostalgia for '80s synth pop and house, yet retained a distinctly Gasman-like character. In 2018, he released Controlled Hallucination, a wildly ambitious work which encompassed all of the artist's styles. A teenage fan of breakbeat rave music, early Aphex Twin, and the output of the Rephlex label, Reeves began creating music using a programmable Yamaha keyboard as well as samples from records, tapes, and the radio. Some of his music was built from reel-to-reel tapes of classical music run through a computer. In 1998, he began using programs Soundforge and Acid to create tracks. Gradually, he developed a style which blended sophisticated, Baroque-influenced melodies with chopped-up breakbeats, all covered in an ethereal, glowing echo. In 2003, Planet Mu issued the Gasman's debut, Remedial, an album containing tracks selected by label head Mike Paradinas from three demo CDs. A ghostly, glitchy ambient track titled "Imodium" appeared on Warp Records' limited sampler Warpmart Issue 1, as well as Planet Mu's 2004 compilation Children of Mu. The song also appeared on the Gasman's second Planet Mu release, an ambitious double album titled The Grand Electric Palace of Variety, which was issued in 2005. Also that year, Reeves appeared on Canadian label Sublight Records (Multiplex) and American label Terminal Dusk (the more breakbeat-heavy Hardline EP). In early 2006, the Gasman returned to Planet Mu with This One's for You, which featured more dilapidated breakbeats and rave-influenced synthesizer tones than his previous releases. His second and final album for Sublight, Trueform, followed later in the year (the label folded in 2007). Reeves released no less than three albums in 2007: Love Collection and Audiogold on Planet Mu, as well as 001 on his own GasmanMusic. 2008's Superlife also appeared on Planet Mu, while the more acid techno-influenced Weak-base Equilibria was the first of several Gasman EPs to be released by netlabel the Centrifuge. Reeves' seventh album for Planet Mu, Powerpoints, appeared in 2010. Following Powerpoints, Reeves primarily released music on GasmanMusic (under his usual pseudonym as well as other monikers such as Synthia, Wiggy, and Meatman) or a few netlabels like Bit-Phalanx. CD 003 and digital album Pinch Roller 2002-2006 (a collection of previously unreleased lo-fi rave-influenced tracks) were both self-released in 2011. An album of complex digital piano compositions titled Hiding Place was released by Believers Roast in 2012. He returned to his breakbeat-heavy IDM sound with 2013's 013. This was followed in 2014 by Hiding Place #2, another piano release on Believers Roast, as well as a self-released cassette of acid house-inspired tracks simply titled House. In 2015, Reeves released Archive, an overwhelming 200-track compendium of unreleased material dating back to his earliest experiments from the first half of the '90s. This was followed by It Is Always Now, a proper-length album which was only available physically as a USB stick. In 2016, Onomatopoeia Records released the Gasman's full-length Aeriform. The album was only the second Gasman recording to be issued on vinyl, following 2005's Hardline. Following a trio of house-leaning releases, all self-issued in 2017, the Gasman returned to Onomatopoeia with the sprawling Controlled Hallucination in 2018. ~ David Jeffries & Paul Simpson