Lateral draws from a rich well of influences, most of them concentrated in the 1990s and very early 2000s: the scuff and interference of classic IDM, the swooning deep house of Larry Heard and Glenn Underground, and, most auspiciously, the dub techno of Basic Channel and its Chain Reaction imprint.
His first albums under his own name, 1995's Earth & Nightfall and 1996's cult classic Ten Days of Blue, were blissful-sounding ambient techno records that took the melodic sensibilities of the local scene to their cosmic extremes. Every beep and blip was in harmony with a lush string line, the rhythms less like breakbeats or programmed drums than trance-inducing hammered dulcimers.
In even the most straightforward Tanner Matt production, there's a moment where everything threatens to disintegrate. Since he began putting out leftfield house music in the early 2010s-working under aliases like Hashman Deejay, Studio Mody, and Ttam Renat, and in the groups Aquarian Foundation, Kinetic Electronix, and INTe*ra, among others-the Vancouver electronic musician has specialized in stripped-down tracks with shaky foundations and a sneaky dub underpinning.