| Underground Resistance |
|
| Background information |
| Origin |
Detroit, Michigan, United States |
| Years active |
1989–present |
| Label(s) |
Underground Resistance, Somewhere In Detroit (SID) |
| Associated acts |
Drexciya, Marc Floyd, DJ Rolando, James Pennington, Blake Baxter, Chuck Gibson (Perception/Hi-techfunk) and Gerald Mitchell, DJ 3000, DJ Skurge, DJ Dex, DJ S2, The Vision, Buzz Goree, Suburban Knight, The Unknown Soldier, DJ Di'jital and Claude Young, Galaxy 2 Galaxy |
| Website |
www.undergroundresistance.com |
| Members |
| Mike Banks, DJ 3000, DJ Dex, DJ S2, The Vision, Buzz Goree, Suburban Knight, The Unknown Soldier, DJ Skurge |
| Former members |
| Jeff Mills, Claude Young, Robert Hood, DJ Rolando |
Underground Resistance (commonly abbreviated to UR) is a musical collective from Detroit, Michigan, in the United States of America. They are the most militantly political example of modern Detroit Techno, with a grungy, four-track musical aesthetic and a strictly anti-mainstream business strategy. They have exerted their portion of Detroit Techno's cultural influence towards promoting political activism.
Begun in the late 1980s by Jeff Mills and "Mad" Mike Banks, UR related the aesthetics of early Detroit Techno to the complex social, political, and economic circumstances which followed on from Reagan-era inner-city economic recession, producing uncompromising music geared toward promoting awareness and facilitating political change. Later Robert "Noise" Hood joined the collective.
As with Public Enemy, there have been intimations that UR's subversively 'militant' approach to music was related to the activities of the Black Panthers in the 1970s, something Mills confirmed in an interview.[1]
Many of Underground Resistance's labelmate's early releases were the product of various experiments by Banks, Mills, and Hood, both solo and in collaboration, before Mills and Hood left the collective in 1992 to achieve international success as solo artists and DJs. Mike Banks continued to lead UR in the wake of the split, releasing EPs during the mid-1990s such as "Return of Acid Rain," "Message to the Majors," and "Galaxy to Galaxy" under the UR name, as well as 12-inches by increasingly renowned artists such as Drexciya.
UR tracks have occasionally been released on other labels (usually in what UR metaphorically describe as "reconnaissance" or "infiltration").
1998's "Interstellar Fugitives", the first full album credited to Underground Resistance, saw Mike Banks redefining the collective's sound as "High-Tech Funk", reflecting a shift in emphasis from hard, minimal club Techno to breakbeats, Electro and even occasionally Drum and Bass and down-tempo Hip-Hop. In 1999, newcomer DJ Rolando released UR's most commercially successful EP, "The Knights of The Jaguar".
In 2000, Kraftwerk released a remix single of their theme composed for the Expo 2000 in Hanover, featuring contributions from Rolando and Banks, making them two of only a handful of producers ever to be given the privilege of remixing Kraftwerk. From 2002 onwards, Kraftwerk's live shows featured the group performing UR's remixes compiled in the song now called "Planet of Visions".
Discography
Remixes
References
Footnotes
- ^ "All the black men you see in America today are the direct result of those actions: all the freedoms we have, as well as the restrictions, refer back to the government and the Black Panthers in the '70s," he said in that interview. "So we make music. We make music about who we are and where we’re from. Of course there are going to be links – that's why we had songs with titles like Riot. Because that's indicative of the era we were born in, and the things we remember. As time goes on, naturally I think the messages will get further away from that. It's not a coincidence. There is a reason behind UR and Public Enemy and these people.” - Jeff Mills Does Solo Flight, Andrez Bergen. Daily Yomiuri, September 2006.
See also
External links
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