Max Gardner is a cornerstone of Bay Area techno. As founder of the Direct to Earth collective and label head of Peer, he champions music over ego, curating releases from Drumcell, Insolate, Uun, Annika Wolfe, and others. His own productions—out on Blank Code, Occultists, and Northern Parallels—match his DJ sets: hypnotic, psychedelic, and meticulously layered.

Gardner’s résumé spans residencies at San Francisco mainstays F8, 1015 Folsom, Monarch, and 222 Hyde, plus international sets at RSO Berlin, Moog Barcelona, MUTE Medellín, and Detroit’s Leland City Club. A 2023 European tour took him to Berlin, Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Madrid’s Phase Collective, while stateside he’s a fixture at OBSERVE LA and The Great Beyond near Minneapolis.

Whether in the booth or the studio, Gardner pursues the fleeting moments when pure sound suspends time—an approach that keeps him permanently woven into the fabric of North American techno.