[3][4] They first began working with music sampling using ping-pong recording techniques between two cassette tape decks, and then later acquired a keyboard with loop-recording capabilities.

[3] They produced many of their early works using a Novation Launchpad mini drum machine and Fruityloops software before switching to the Cubase digital audio workstation.

[9] Aside from Bach as a recurring theme in their music and imagery, Breakmaster Cylinder has also cited Art Tatum, The Beatles, Nine Inch Nails, and Squarepusher as influences on their work.

[10] Cylinder's career took off after scoring the theme for TL;DR, an internet-themed segment hosted by Alex Goldman and PJ Vogt for the WNYC Studios public radio program On the Media.

Goldman enlisted Cylinder as the show's composer after seeing a music video that they had made for their remix of The Chordettes' song "Mr. Sandman" set to a montage of film clips from horror cinema.

In an interview for Hrishikesh Hirway’s podcast Song Exploder, Cylinder revealed that they derived Reply All's opening theme's chord structure from Bach's "Prelude in C Major" mixed with acoustically recorded drums, a MIDI-derived bass line, and the sounds of rolling jars, spinning coins, and a hammer shattering a small glass.

[3] Cylinder also created satirical cut-ups from pieces of Reply All episodes that were run post-show as incentive for continued listenership through the podcast's end credits and final ad block.

[11] Reply All's success led to Cylinder taking jobs creating themes for more than 60 other podcasts in the next three years, as well as music for film, advertisements, and video games.

[19] A reviewer described Cylinder’s mash-up "The NPR Drop" as "a wonderfully bizarre amalgamation of dubstep, Lakshmi Singh, and the All Things Considered horns.

[3] A decade of collaboration with rapper Dislotec resulted in a series of singles released from 2015–2019 and an album issued as a reward to Cylinder's Kickstarter backers.

"[15] For an interview with The Secret Room podcast, Cylinder fielded questions through a mix of flying saucer-style mashups of pop songs and an old Speak & Spell on the fritz.

[6] In photographs, Cylinder appears as a head shrouded in a black motorcycle helmet painted with white bug-eyes that are actually a pair of full stop marks that form the base of two exclamation points.