Every other Thursday, The Bunker founder Bryan Kasenic invites some of the finest names in zoned-in, psychedelic techno into our NYC studio to discuss their craft and play some music – be it a mix of club-ready tracks, a selection of favorite obscurities or a live set teased out on synths and drum machines.
During a recent broadcast timed a few days before the techno institution celebrated its 14th anniversary with a blowout in Brooklyn, party headliners Romans came through with a mountain of gear and carte blanche to go deep. Comprised of Vienna-based acid evangelist Tin Man and Brooklyn techno upstart Gunnar Haslam, the duo recently released their first album, 'Valere Aude,' through The Bunker New York, and their live sets have become a staple of Bunker events worldwide.
In the studio that afternoon, it was easy to see why. Simply put, they blew the roof off the place. We didn’t want to let this set drift into the ether, so here it is in full: just under an hour of expertly twisted techno from Romans.
We touched in with Gunnar Haslam after the show to hear more about how Romans approaches a set.
RBMA: What sort of gear are you guys using in your live sets?
Johannes brings a TB-303, a TT-303, a TR-8 and some Yamaha effects units, while I (Gunnar) bring my portable Eurorack system, an MFB Tanzbaer and (often) a TR-606. For this RBMA show I brought a TB-03 as well. We typically ask the venue to provide a 16-channel mixer, SH-101 and TR-808 for us.
RBMA: How does your live set change from show to show? How has it developed over time?
Each show is completely improvised, so we are able to change the whole thing depending on the situation. Aside from the patterns stored in memory on the 303, sequences never really reappear, and we can take the set wherever we want to. We tried to plan things out for our first couple live sets together and that never worked, hence the live set's current unstructured form.
RBMA: Tell us about the set you played for The Bunker on RBMA Radio. Was it fairly typical for a Romans set? Was there anything that set it apart?
It was a pretty solid representation of a typical Romans set, though not being in a club let us stretch out and take things in a couple different directions. It does feature a cameo from Mike Servito on the contact microphone for that added special flavor.
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https://www.rbmaradio.com/shows/bunker-ny
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