UR

It has been two decades since the most political group in the history of techno set out to change the course of electronic music: Underground Resistance. Time to pay tribute to the heralds of a sonic revolution.

In late 1989, on November 2 to be precise, two individuals from Detroit, Michigan, decided it was time for a change: 'Mad' Mike Banks, formerly a bass player for Parliament and producer for a dance music crew called Members of House, and Jeff 'The Wizard' Mills, at the time a DJ on local radio station WJLB, formed a collective henceforth known as the Underground Resistance. Inspired by radical factions of the civil rights movements, such as the Black Panthers, and political hip-hop groups like Public Enemy, UR desired to take social activism to a musical genre previously deemed incapable of conveying political messages: techno.

Where the genre's founding fathers had set their sights on an imagined future, UR opened their eyes to the dystopia of present day Detroit: Abandoned neighbourhoods, urban desolation, still prevailing racism, and cultural hegemony firmly in the hands of a privileged few.

Fuel for the Fire

While UR's initial collaborations with Members Of The House singer Yolanda Reynolds ('Your Time Is Up' and 'Living For The Nite') still clung to the blueprint of piano vocal house, Banks and Mills soon stepped up the intensity. The pair was joined by Robert 'Noise' Hood, who had previously featured as a rapper on the rare UR production 'Dance To The Beat', as a third member, and together the henceforth face- and nameless group entered their most productive phase.

In little over two years Banks, Hood and Mills recorded over a dozen 12"s in various permutations of the line-up, growing harder and more radical in both sound and image with each new release. The 'Sonic' and 'Waveform' EPs were followed by 'Riot' and 'Fuel For The Fire', and 'Punisher's permutation of the eponymous comic book hero's logo became the most iconic and eagerly reproduced symbol for UR's political cause against oppression, discrimination and cultural commercialisation.

Message to the Majors

1992 was to be a year of change: At the height of UR's success Jeff Mills and Robert Hood decided to leave the group to pursue solo careers. Reasons for the split have never been publicised, but it can be assumed that differences in creative vision were a factor. Hood and Mills both moved to New York to explore more minimalistic concepts of techno on their their newly founded M-Plant and Axis labels. Remaining member Mike Banks on the other hand continued the project by incorporating more of his funk and electro roots into UR's sound aesthetic. 'Final Frontier' and the unambiguous 'Message To The Majors' were the first ever UR records to employ broken beats while sounding as vigorous as ever.
After Hood and Mills' demise Mike Banks further opened up UR as a platform to feature and promote like-minded local artists. Veteran producer James Pennington (a.k.a. Suburban Knight) joined the ranks of the Resistance as did new artists like Scan-7, Gerald Mitchell and, perhaps most notably, Drexciya, a group long shrouded in mystery, whose brilliant experimental electro productions paved the way for a worldwide resurgence of the genre.

Condition Red

It was one of this new generation of artists who in 1999 suddenly found himself in the middle of UR's biggest success and at the same time biggest controversy. Together with Mad Mike and Gerald Mitchell, 'DJ Rolando' Rocha had recorded the track 'Jaguar'. Its ingenious chord progressions made the track a world-wide club hit, quickly crossing over from underground dance floors to stylish Ibiza discos.

Clever managers at Sony/BMG Germany took note, and, when UR unsurprisingly declined to license the track, decided to have it covered by studio musicians note by note. While to be considered legal by German law, the cover version outraged the group's fans and supporters as a symbol for the commercial exploitation UR have been opposing for so long. Amidst those protests, Sony/BMG eventually withdrew the release from the market and issued a letter of apology to UR - a small victory for the underground.

Transition

When UR's original headquarters had to make way for the new Red Wings Hockey Stadium at the beginning of the new millennium, the UR collective moved into a new building at 3000 E. Grand Blvd., along with related distribution company Submerge. UR once again entered a new phase with the '3000' building, designed and intended as communal hub for techno culture.

New artists once again joined the resistance's ranks, such as legendary Amsterdam techno producer Orlando Voorn, who lived in Detroit between 2003 and 2007, and numerous other artists, such as Santiago 'S²' Salazar and the anonymous Aquanauts. Mad Mike further returned to his live music roots, assembling an all-star band around his Galaxy 2 Galaxy project, which he has been taking on tour to much acclaim.

Besides the most recent UR album, 'Electronic Warfare 2.0', which includes the programmatic hit 'Kill My Radio Station', two compilations give an insight into the activities of Detroit's greatest producer collective over the past decade: 'Interstellar Fugitives' and its follow-up 'Interstellar Fugitives - Destruction of Order'. Besides these two exhaustive compilations, new UR releases might have become fewer and further between, but as long as they reach us via obscure channels from time to time, we can be certain that somewhere in Detroit the resistance is busy at work, plotting war on the programmers, and electrifying the city with sci-fi thoughts and hi-tech dreams.

@'Zero"