By MIKE RUBIN

Published: December 4, 2009

Link

IT was at a party in 1970 that Ralf Hütter first glimpsed the potential power of the Man Machine. Kraftwerk, the avant-garde musical group he had founded that year with Florian Schneider in Düsseldorf, Germany, was playing a concert at the opening of an art gallery, a typical gig at the time. Trying to channel the energy of the Detroit bands it admired, like the Stooges and MC5, the duo had augmented its usual arsenal of Mr. Schneider’s flute and Mr. Hütter’s electric organ with a tape recorder and a little drum machine, and they were whipping the crowd into a frenzy with loops of feedback and a flurry of synthetic beats.

As the show climaxed, Mr. Hütter recalled: “I pressed some keys down on my keyboard, putting some weight down on the keys, and we left the stage. The audience at the party was so wild, they kept dancing to the machine.”

Thus began a careerlong obsession with the fusion of man and technology. It would take four more years (and three largely instrumental records of electro-acoustic improvisation) before Kraftwerk heralded the coming of electronic pop on its landmark 1974 album “Autobahn,” and another four years before the members proclaimed themselves automatons on “The Robots,” the band’s de facto theme song from 1978’s “The Man-Machine” album. But even in 1970 the hum of what Mr. Hütter calls electrodynamics was buzzing in his veins.

“This rhythm, industrial rhythm, that’s what inspires me,” Mr. Hütter, 63, said. “It’s in the nature of the machines. Machines are funky.”

Few bands have done more to promote that once incongruous concept than Kraftwerk. Though its image shifted over the years from conservatory longhairs to Weimar-era dandies to stylized mannequin machines, it consistently provided a blueprint for the circuitry of modern pop music. David Bowie, an early adapter, channeled the band’s chilly vibes for his late ’70s “Berlin Trilogy,” and in the early 1980s synth pop groups like Human League and Depeche Mode followed suit.

Kraftwerk also became the unlikely godfather of American hip-hop and black electronic dance music, inspiring pioneers in the South Bronx and Detroit. Today Kraftwerk’s resonance can be heard in works as varied as Radiohead and the Auto-Tuned hip-hop of Kanye West and T-Pain.

“Kraftwerk were a huge influence on the early hip-hop scene, and they basically invented electro, which has had a huge influence on contemporary R&B and pop,” the techno artist Moby said. “Kraftwerk are to contemporary electronic music what the Beatles and the Rolling Stones are to contemporary rock music.”

Yet 35 years after “Autobahn” Kraftwerk remains relatively anonymous, thanks largely to a carefully crafted cloak of secrecy, one that an hourlong phone conversation last month with Mr. Hütter from Kraftwerk’s Kling Klang Studio outside Düsseldorf failed to penetrate significantly. On topics ranging from the band’s creative hibernation of the last quarter-century (only two albums of new material since 1981’s “Computer World”) to Mr. Schneider’s departure from the group late last year, Mr. Hütter was pleasant but revealed little. “It’s important for me that the music speak for itself,” he said.

This month the music should do just that with the release of “The Catalogue” (Astralwerks/EMI), a boxed set of newly remastered versions of the band’s last eight albums, beginning with “Autobahn” and including all of the records with the so-called classic Kraftwerk lineup: Mr. Hütter, Mr. Schneider and the electronic percussionists Wolfgang Flur and Karl Bartos. (Five of the remastered albums are also available individually.) Like Mr. Hütter’s infrequent interviews, “The Catalogue” doesn’t divulge much that fans don’t already know. There are no liner notes, no unreleased tracks, no digital mini-documentaries, just some additional photos and revised album graphics.

The music, however, is much more generous. The remasters render Kraftwerk’s glistening, icy textures even more shimmering and crystalline, the repetition more entrancing. “Autobahn,” for example, welds a bouncy Beach Boys harmony to the hypnotic 4/4 motorik beat pioneered by the German band Neu! (whose Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother were part of an early Kraftwerk lineup) to create a 22-minute synthesizer symphony evoking a pleasant highway drive. (A three-minute edit of the song reached No. 25 on Billboard’s singles chart in 1975, the group’s only hit in the United States.)

“For the first time, I think the music sounds the way we always heard it and produced it in our Kling Klang Studio,” Mr. Hütter said.

After “Autobahn,” albums like “Radio-Activity” (1976) and “Trans-Europe Express” (1977) further refined the group’s experimental pop sensibility. Borrowing from the German tradition of sprechgesang, or spoken singing, Mr. Hütter’s flat, affectless voice — sometimes treated with a vocoder to further dehumanize it — is an odd match for the band’s lilting music-box melodies. “What I try to do on the synthesizers,” Mr. Hütter said, “is sing with my fingers.”

But for some critics the group’s synthetic songs just didn’t compute. “Fun plus dinky doesn’t make funky no matter who’s dancing to what program,” Robert Christgau wrote of “Computer World” in The Village Voice. “Funk has blood in it.”

Such distinctions didn’t seem to matter to club crowds: New York’s downtown scene embraced the group. François Kevorkian, a D.J. at underground clubs in the late ’70s and early ’80s, would use Kraftwerk to blend tracks by Fela Kuti and Babatunde Olatunji into his sets. “What was really remarkable was that their music was getting played just as much at Paradise Garage as it was getting played at the Mudd Club, and there were very, very few records that had that ability to cross over between all the different scenes,” said Mr. Kevorkian, who would later work with the band on its “Electric Cafe” album. “Kraftwerk was, like, universal.”

Kraftwerk had long been a staple of the D.J. sets of Afrika Bambaataa in the South Bronx, and in 1982 he and the producer Arthur Baker decided to combine the melody from “Trans-Europe Express” (which Mr. Baker had noticed kids playing on boom boxes in a Long Island City, Queens, park) and the rhythm pattern of “Numbers” (which Mr. Baker had seen wow customers at a Brooklyn record store). The result was the pioneering 12-inch single “Planet Rock” by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force.

“I’m trying to remember a record that created that much mayhem on the dance floor when it first came out, and I can’t,” Mr. Kevorkian said of the reaction to “Planet Rock.” Most early hip-hop songs were slow, “from 90 beats per minute to 110,” Mr. Bambaataa said. “We went to 130 beats per minute, and from that came Latin freestyle, Miami bass and all that.”

“All that” encompassed an entirely new genre, electro, which paved an alternate route for hip-hop. It’s hard to imagine the productions of Timbaland or the Neptunes without the innovations of “Planet Rock,” and its repercussions can still be heard the world over, from Bay Area hyphy to Brazilian baile funk.

The roots of techno wind their way back to Düsseldorf too. In Detroit the radio D.J. Charles Johnson — better known as the Electrifying Mojo — built a fervent following on the urban contemporary station WGPR-FM in the late ’70s and early ’80s by ignoring the rigid formatting of other local stations. He had fished a copy of “Autobahn” out of the discard bin at a previous station and soon acquired a copy of “Trans-Europe Express.” “It was the most hypnotic, funkiest, electronic fusion energy I’d ever heard,” Mr. Johnson said. Kraftwerk became a staple of Mojo’s show “The Midnight Funk Association.” When “Computer World” came out, Mr. Johnson played almost every song on the album each night, making a lasting impression on a generation of musicians.

“Before I heard ‘The Robots’ I wasn’t really using sequencers and I was playing everything by hand, so it sounded really organic, really flowing, really loose,” the Detroit D.J. and producer Juan Atkins said. “That really made me research getting into sequencing, to give everything that real tight robotic feel.”

Over the next several years Mr. Atkins, along with his high school friends Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, would become the pioneers of techno, which Mr. May once famously described as being “like George Clinton and Kraftwerk caught in an elevator with only a sequencer to keep them company.”

Techno would eventually explode internationally in 1988, with raves in London and trance in Goa, India. Back in Detroit, “Computer World” would assume the status of a sacred text. Kraftwerk was “considered like gods,” said Carl Craig, a Detroit techno producer. “Black people could relate to it because it was like James Brown. It was just this kind of relentless groove.” Mad Mike Banks, founder of the Detroit techno collective Underground Resistance, said he considered the song “Numbers,” from “Computer World,” the “secret code of electronic funk.”

“That track hit home in Detroit so hard,” Mr. Banks said. “They had just created the perfect urban music because it was controlled chaos, and that’s exactly what we live in.”

For Kraftwerk it’s a civic connection that has come full circle. In the last decade Mr. Hütter has developed relationships with some Detroit artists he inspired, including Mr. Banks. It seems to be a kind of “brotherhood, like Düsseldorf and Detroit,” Mr. Hütter said, saying he’s fascinated “that this music from two industrial centers of the world, with different cultures and different history, suddenly there’s an inspiration and a flow going back and forth. It’s fantastic.

“All this positive energy, this feedback coming back to me, is charging our battery, and now we’re full of energy. It keeps my Ralf robot going.”

Indeed, compared with Kraftwerk’s near invisibility throughout most of the ’80s and ’90s, the last few years have seen a relative flurry of Kraftwerk activity. Laptops have allowed the group to take its Kling Klang Studio on the road, so it has been touring regularly, adding 3-D graphics to the live show this year. Now that “The Catalogue” is completed, Mr. Hütter has promised a new Kraftwerk album soon, which would mark the band’s first recording without Mr. Schneider. If Mr. Hütter has any reservations about working without his musical partner of four decades, he kept them to himself; perhaps robots are incapable of showing emotion?

“There’s so much to do,” Mr. Hütter said. “I feel like we are just starting.”

Green Revolution nos regala una deliciosa sesión de mezcla hecha como homenaje a la música de Detroit, Michigan. En ella nos lleva a un viaje que explora desde el future jazz al techno underground de la vieja escuela, pasando por el más calido deep house, hasta el beebop y el hip hop más avanzado. Esperamos que la disfruten.

Tracklist / Todos Artistas de Detroit:

01 Jay Dee – Welcome to Detroit
02 Blue Eyez – Welcome
03 Jay Dee – Circus
04 The Detroit Experiment – Too High
05 3 Chairs – All Over
06 3 Chairs – Chamillion
07 Moodymann – Anotha Black Sunday
08 The Detroit Experiment – Thing Twice
09 Juan Atkins – Die Kosmischen Kuriere (Magic Juan Edit)
10 Anthony Shakir – Sequence 10
11 Inner City – Big Fun
12 Underground Resistance – Hi-tech Jazz
13 Matthew Dear – Reason And Responsibility
14 3 Chairs – Congo Mambo
15 The Detroit Experiment – Baby Needs New Shoes
16 Jay Dee – Daylight
17 Milt Jackson – Groovin’
18 George Katsiris – Coming Up For Air

Escuchar / Descargar

Carice van Houten and Michel Huisman get bombed.

(Sony Classics) Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Waldemar Kobus, Derek de Lint, Christian Berkel, Dolf de Vries. Directed by Paul Verhoeven.

While war itself is an absolute evil, often life in wartime is characterized by varying shades of grey. Those caught up in it must often differentiate between these shades, trying to find the one that is least black. In the process, they often have to become something terrible in order to avoid becoming a corpse.

Rachel Stein (van Houten) is a Dutch Jew hiding in the countryside during the waning days of World War II, hoping to survive until the Germans are defeated. When her hiding place is obliterated, she is taken to see a sympathetic notary (de Vries) who helps reunite her with her family with the purpose of getting them across the border to Allied territory. During the river crossing, the boat full of Jewish refugees is ambushed by the Nazis and gunned down. Rachel is the only survivor.

She is rescued by Gerben Kuipers (de Lint), a Dutch resistance leader who offers her shelter. Instead, the vengeful Rachel joins the resistance as a spy and changes her name to the less ethnic Ellis de Vries. During a mission with Hans Akkerman (Hoffman), she meets Ludwig Muntze (Koch), the head of the Dutch SD. She makes an impression on him, but thinks nothing further of it.

After Kuipers’ son is captured she is enlisted to seduce Muntze and obtain the release of the captives. She is hired as his assistant and soon befriends Ronnie (Reijn), a Dutch woman who is using whatever means necessary to survive, including sleeping with Frankel (Kobus), a ruthless sub commander who was responsible for the death of her parents. Ellis/Rachel manages to bug Frankel’s office, giving the resistance much useful information. She also finds that Muntze’s duties are being suborned by his conscience, and that he is an incredibly decent man. She begins to fall in love with him.

After several missions go horribly wrong it soon becomes clear that the resistance has an informant in its midst. Suspicion falls on Ellis/Rachel after Frankel frames her. Now, she finds that post-war Holland is in many respects more dangerous for her than the Nazi occupation was as she tries to discover who the true traitor is before she is captured by those she worked so hard to assist.

Verhoeven, whose career was established based on his Dutch war masterpiece Soldier of Orange has been making Hollywood blockbusters such as Total Recall, RoboCop, Starship Troopers and Basic Instinct. This is his first Dutch film since 1983’s The 4^th Man. Black Book holds the distinction of being the most expensive film ever made in Holland at the time it was released, and also the most commercially successful film to come from the Netherlands ever.

The movie has a very slick look to it, and cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub does a fine job of making it look good. Verhoeven has done an excellent job of bringing wartime Holland to life. He has also co-written a script that has ample twists and turns as Ellis/Rachel navigates – often painfully – through the politics not only of the Nazi occupation but of the Dutch resistance as well. It works pretty nicely as a thriller.

The big problem with the writing, if it has any, is that there are too many twists and turns. As Ellis/Rachel wails near the end of the film, “When will it all stop!” and we, the audience agree – the movie is about 20 minutes too long. However, that really is where the bellyaching from this critic begins and ends.

Van Houten is a spectacular-looking woman, and not a bad actress to boot. She has to carry the movie nearly entirely on her shoulders and she does a good job of it. She gets support from Koch, who reminds me of the Dutch actor Jeroen Krabbe, and from Hoffman, who reminds me a bit of Andrew McCarthy.

Overall, this is very well-made and does keep you on the edge of your seat. Although this is a work of fiction, many of the events depicted here actually happened. Verhoeven, when at the top of his game, is a world class director, and he’s at the top of his game here. With just a bit of tweaking, this might have been his best work ever. Instead, it’s a very enjoyable, entertaining two hours well worth spending.

WHY RENT THIS: This is an edge-of-your-seat thriller that is as well-made as any coming out of Hollywood. Van Houten is an absolutely spectacular looking woman. World War II-set movies are big these days.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Movie goes on a bit too long with one two many twists. Dialogue is mostly in Dutch and German, so those who abhor subtitles will be annoyed.

FAMILY VALUES: Many Nazi atrocities are depicted in unflinching detail. There is also a fair amount of female nudity, as well as extremely sexual situations.

TRIVIAL PURSUITS: The genesis of the film came when director Verhoeven was researching true stories from the Second World War in the Netherlands back in 1977 when he was making Soldier of Orange.

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: None listed.

FINAL RATING: 7/10

TOMORROW: Capitalism: A Love Story

Underground Resistance verlegen Detroit mal kurz nach Italien, Piano House Smasher der wunderbar den kalten Herbst vertreibt.

Few cities in the world can claim to have produced as many legends as Detroit.

From Motown through to todays Techno stars – Detroit has consistently drummed out untouchable talent much to the envy of many other cities. Over the last two decades its producer/DJ roster has mostly consisted of the likes of Derrick May, Juan Atklins, Underground Resistance, Jeff Mills and Carl Craig aka 69 (aka a tons of other pesudonyms) flying the steely soundscapes of Motor City.

Detroits fascination with vinyl seems never ending despite the fact the rest of the world having turned mostly digital. Above brigade swears by the black stuff, and insists of having 1210’s installed when playing.

Carl Craig – has just released an extreeeemely limited edition box set on vinyl only entitled – “The Legendary Adventures Of A Filter King” – which comes packed in 5 x 12″ on coloured vinyl containing 69 classics and some unreleased mixes. In fact – the box is so limited it’s only been pressed in 400 copies for the world with mastering by D&M Berlin.

If you have money to burn – the set will part you with nothing less than 125,-  UK Pounds, but for the time being you can sample some tastes in shape of the unreleased track – “Poi Et Pas” – and a the classic 69 track – “Ladies & Gentlemen”.

As usual – Detroit doesn’t do things by halves!

MP3: 69 – Poi Et Pas (Original Unreleased Mix)

MP3: 69 – Ladies & Gentlemen

Latest news on the IR front, that’s Indigenous Resistance, sorry for being so flippant.  You can download ‘Krikati Power Surge’ featuring Underground Resistance, Dr. Das, Steven Stanley The Ghost and the Krikati indians of Brasil, right here  http://www.garageband.com/artist/indigenousdub.  Also available is ‘Sacred Lands Fuck Babylon junglist mix’ featuring Ramjac,Tapedave, Filthy Rich, Jimmy Dick and The Ghost.

Molti di voi li conosceranno per la celebre “Transition” pubblicata su plus 8, suonata e risuonata, in original mix, remixata e in acappella, ma pochi sapranno in realtà da chi è composto questo formidabile collettivo di Detroit.

Come scritto più in alto, gli Underground Resistance sono un collettivo musicale di Detroit, sono stati e sono attualmente la formazione techno più schierata e attiva politicamente, lo si può intuire già dal fatto che amino definirsi collettivo.

Il loro schieramento anti-capitalista è talmente forte, che li ha portati a ripudiare  in qualsiasi modo la politica delle etichette main-stream, e a fare della techno uno strumento rappresentativo dell’alienazione vissuta nella Motor-City, per gli U.R. la musica non è mai fine a se stessa ma bisogna unire l’utile al dilettevole, quindi la musica per promuovere l’attivismo politico.

Gli U.R. iniziano a produrre musica negli anni ‘80, la formazione iniziale vede Jeff Mills e “Mad” Mike Banks che si uniscono proprio durante il periodo di massima recessione negli Stati Uniti, in una Detroit in piena crisi. Successivamente si unì al collettivo anche Robert “Noise” Hood.

Nella metà degli anni ‘80 si arrivò a presuppore che il collettivo Underground Resistance fosse correlato alle Pantere Nere (attivisti e promotori del “Potere Nero”), Mills confermò alcuni legami in una intervista.

La maggior parte delle produzioni Underground Resistance, sono state rilasciate da Mills, Hood e Banks sotto vari esperimenti collaborativi o come progetti solisti.

Nel 1992 Mills & Hood lasciano il collettivo, per concentrarsi sulle loro carriere personali e farsi conoscere meglio in tutto il mondo.

Mike Banks continuò invece la sua attività nel collettivo, rilasciando capolavori come “Return of Acid Rain,” “Message to the Majors,” e “Galaxy to Galaxy” sotto alias Underground Resistance.

Molti brani UR furono spesso rilasciati anche su altre etichette.

Nel 1999 l’entrata di DJ Rolando nel collettivo vede l’U.R. raggiungere il successo commerciale con la traccia “The Knight & The Jaguar”, traccia in circolazione nei club ancora oggi sotto vari remix e cover.

Nel 2000 i Kraftwerk rilasciarono un EP contenente i remix del loro operato all’expo di Hanover, collaborando con alcuni componenti dell’U.R., i quali tuttavia non furono citati all’interno del booklet con il loro vero nome, bensì con i numeri di catalogo dell’etichetta U.R., quindi: 035 – DJ Rolando 038 – Mike Banks 039 – Andre Holland 044 – Gerald Mitchel.

Nel 2002 i Kraftwerk suonano nelle loro performance più volte il remix di “Planet of Visions” proprio ad opera dei componenti dell’Underground Resistance.

Nel 2006 Remixano anche un pezzo per i Depeche Mode, “People are People”.

—-

17.10.2009

]]> http://earconditioning.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/ear-conditioning-left-side-of-the-brain/ Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:36:46 +0000 earconditioning http://earconditioning.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/ear-conditioning-left-side-of-the-brain/

Photo:  What you see may not be real – Chen Wenling

As summer gives way to autumn, it’s only right to kick things off with Scanuppia, a track from latest album of recordings by Chris Watson. Here he records natural sounds in the Alpine region of Italy.  The results are very much of the forehead-raising variety, quite a surprise at what can be recorded in temperatures of -25 degrees. Great samples too! It sits well with my new find of the week,  James Blake / Air & Lack Thereof.  A seemingly gospel sample, ‘Calling heaven and hell’ sitting on a bed  of  electronic buzzes flying through the air, a whiplash snare, an inviting melody and bass.  Also on the bass tip this week is RDS, ‘Forward Youth’.  RSD is Rob Smith of Smith and Mighty fame, so you know it’s legit.

My rewind champions of the last couple of weeks, Obba Supa, recorded a Gilles Peterson radio session featuring music from Floating Points, and with seeing the name several times I had to check to see wha’ g’wan.  A day later in the inbox from the promo kings, All Young Kings, was the new ‘Vacuum’ ep from Floating Points, so I am sharing this with the listeners.  Hammond organ, skip hop beats,  jazz brushes, techno sensibilities  in one package.  Also more Obba of course.

Techno.  I love the original Detroit stuff like Mayday, Kevin Saunderson, moving onto Stacey Pullen, the European hijacking of Techno was natural to a degree, but on the whole, naff for my ears, and when somebody me says ‘Techno’ I get all weird.  Maybe because they generally mean that Euro shite.  Anyway, back to the goodness, Underground Resistance, well, I have to give them props 100%, even if I don’t like the majority of their tunes, I’ll buy ‘em just to support them for their political stance.  I heard Codebreaker, and it was immediately in the crate.  Beeps, seeping gases, 909s, shakers percussion and gorgeous pads got me good.

Everytime, well, to be honest, three of the four times, that I’ve played Mulatu Astatke’s ‘Ebo Lala’ at my Txola sessions somebody has moved their lips in a way that makes me think they are saying “What is this?”  The thing with dj’ing with mp3s, is you can’t show them the cover.  Luckily I’m an old skool fucker, so I have the vinyl that I can show the cover while cueing up the next slab with my other hand (talented eh?)

Next Txola session is this Friday, entonces para ellos aqui en el norte de la isla o cerca, venga!  Did I tell you that Txola was listed in the El Pias newspaper as one of the best 50 clubs/bars in ‘Spain’?  If I didn’t, I just did.

Over to you.

Ear Conditioning – The left side of the brain

• Chris Watson – Scanuppia (Sound Threshold)
• Elixir – Trapdoor to another world (Quartermass)
• James Blake – Air & lack thereof (Hemlock)
• Fandango, Duende y Taraf – Title Unknown
• Mulatu Astatke – Ebo Lala (Soundway)
• Bebel Du Guetto – Beijo na Boca
• Bulat Project – Title unknown
• Onra – Last Tango in Saigon
• Obba Supa – 2am but not (Project Moon Circle)
• Guilty Jackson – Coroners Music (Stones Throw)
• Dorian Concepts – Fort Teen (Kindred Spirits)
• Underground Resistance – Codebreaker (UR)
• RSD – Forward Youth (Punch Drunk)
• Floating Points – Argonaut (Eglo)
• Chris Watson – Cima Verde (Sound Threshold)

As usual, this weeks edition of Ear Conditioning is available at the following locations:

Tonight / esta noche (Tuesday / martes) 22h00 Sunhole (Repeated weekdays mornings at 11h00)

Thursday / jueves 23h00 Planet Radio

Äh, var tar några citat igen. Tack alla ni som bidragit med förslag. Jag tar mig den helt distanslösa friheten att citera mig själv också.

Nobody has ever had a fantasy about being tied to a bed and sexually revished by someone dressed as a liberal.
PJ O’Rourke

How can you thank a man for giving you what’s already yours? How then can you thank him for giving you only part of what is yours?
Malcolm X

Do not
Allow
Yourself
To be
Programed
Underground Resistance

Every act of creation is first an act of destruction
Pablo Picasso

Om det inte vore för fängelset, skulle vi veta att vi alla redan är inspärrade.
Maurice Blanchot

Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real
Jean Baudrillard

Måste vi ta över produktionsmedlen är det inte min revolution
Fredrik Edin

Den borgerliga kritikern har alltid haft svårt att se småborgaren i gangstern. Jag tror det kommer sig av att de har så svårt att se gangstern i småborgaren
Bertolt Brecht

Don’t hate the media, become the media
Jello Biafra

If you thought things had changed
Friend you’d better think again
Bluntly put in the fewest of words
Cunts are still running the world
Jarvis Cocker

Joey Beltram – Energy Flash (R&S Records, 1990)

Terrace – War Zone (Motor City Mix) (Djax-Up-Beats, 1990)

Fuse – F.U. (Probe Records, 1991)

Public Energy – Three O’ Three (Probe Records, 1991)

H&M – Sleepchamber (Axis, 1991)

DBX – Frogger (Probe Records, 1992)

CJ Bolland – Mantra (R&S Records, 1992)

The Suburban Knight – Nocturbulous (Underground Resistance, 1993)

Bassic Channel – Axis (Basic Channel, 1993)

The Martian – Stardancer (Red Planet, 1993)

Robert Hood – Museum (Axis, 1994)

Cari Lekebusch – Live and Direct C (H-Productions, 1994)

Damon Wild – Avion (Geometric – Synewave, 1995)

Neil Landstrumm – Custard Traxx (Peacefrog, 1995)

Carl Craig – Science Fiction (Blanco Y Negro, 1995)

Jeff Mills – The Dancer (Purpose Maker, 1996)

Cristian Vogel – Bite And Scratch (Tresor, 1996)

The Vision – Detroit: One Circle (Metroplex, 1996)

Population One – Return Of The Speaker People (Metroplex, 1997)

Regis – HE.3 (Downwards, 1997)

Steve Stoll – Captive (Proper NYC, 1997)

Surgeon – LaReal (Counterbalance, 1998)

Damon Wild – 2112 (Synewave, 1998)

Steve Rachmad – Skyence (Music Man Records, 1998)

The Aztec Mystic – Ascesion (Underground Resistance, 1999)

Ignacio – Sikora (Music Man Records, 1999)

Pascal F.E.O.S. – Technique (PV – Planet Vision, 1999)

Richie Hawtin – Minus / Orange (M_nus, 1999)

Robert Hood – The Art of War (Peacefrog Records, 2002)

Diego – Mind Detergent (Robert Hood Mix 2) (Kanzleramt, 2004)

PS: cine detine vreuna dintre melodii, sa ma anunte

Jeff Mills MySpace. Discogs.

Robert Hood MySpace. Discogs.

Jeff Mills & Robert Hood @ UR Labelnight [June 2009]

Galaxy 2 Galaxy – Hi-Tech Jazz Live @ Metamorphose 2005 Japan

From Submerge Live In Japan DVD 2005

Discogs Link

Žmogus jau turbūt tapęs legenda, techno pionierius. Kažkokia mintis perteikta elektroninėje muzikoje yra retenybė šiomis dienomis, bet jeigu yra bent vienas prodiuseris, kuris nori ne tik priversti žmones šokti ir šėlti, bet ir kažką jiem pasakyti, tai yra Jeff Millsas. Techno pionierius yra labai politiškai nusiteikęs savo naująjame EP (The Good Robot). EQ žurnalas sumastė pagauti patį Jeff Millsą ir sužinoti daugiau.

Ką jie sužinojo žiurek šiame video.

Atlikėjo MySpace.

Atlikėjo diskografija.

“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. . .”

Techno is black music that originated in Detroit.. but somewhere along the line (at least in Toronto, but probably in general too, in the West), it became dominated by white people. What happened? The Hot Sauce crew went to an underground Detroit Techno party recently and we were among the small handful of people who don’t belong to the camp of white.

p.s. Don’t tell Moodymann

-MissRuckus

The night I found out Ron Murphy had died I made a tribute mix to him.

Unmixed techno vinyl, every groove a testament to his skill and innovation.

You probably have no idea who Ron Murphy is, but as a bit of a techno nerd, I know only too well.

He’s the guy who realised, with Jeff Mills, that one hundred and thirty three and a third beats per minute synchs perfectly with one revolution on a turntable spinning at thirty three and a third revolutions per minute, thus allowing a ‘locked groove’ whereby the needle will stick in the groove and play four bars ad infinitum.
Discovered by techno pioneers, the ‘Belleville Three‘, he was encouraged to use his old school lathe. He went on to cut records which played from the centre out; or had two seperate tracks on two seperate grooves; even a combination of all of the above.

The jolly old curmudgeon of a man listened intently to the music and endeavoured to master and press the records to optimise the bass and round out the sound.

Any vinyl buff will greatly appreciate his grooves (seriously) and techno dj’s revel in the weight of sound and the physical sturdiness of the ‘plates’.
Anyone will agree his character and story is fairly adorable. (Listen to this interview).
And you don’t need to be a techno nerd to appreciate the NSCmix I did. Enjoy.

A mix with some of my favourite Red Planet and Underground Resistance tunes:

download

1. Underground Resitsance – Big Stone Lake
2. The Martian – Sex in Zero Gravity
3. Underground Resistance – Nation 2 Nation
4. Octave One – Day Star Rising
5. The Martian – Skypainter
6. Suburban Knight – Midnite Sunshine
7. The Martian – Ghostdancer
8. The Martian – Tobacco Ties
9. Red Planet – Starchild
10. The Martian – Wardance
11. The Martian – Pow Wow (Fancy Dancer Mix)
12. Scan 7 – Password Soul
13. UR – Subsonic Shadow
14. UR – Untitled (Codebreaker B1)
15. Aztec Mystic – Ascension
16. The Martian – Windwalker

*reposted via the Hollerboard*

Underground Resistance. A volte basta la parola, a volte un documentario su Current TV.

Some proper Detroit house music!

“Detroit Love – Funkmaster Mix” produced by The Westside Kings, a faction of Detroit’s infamous Underground Resistance…. tough, jackin, classic 909 hats, it’s all here baby.

The Westside Kings – Detroit Love (Funkmaster Mix)

O Derrick May postou hoje no Facebook dele um link do Youtube de uma parte do documentário Universal Techno. Eu já tinha visto algumas vezes, mas vendo o filme de novo me deu uma mega saudades de Detroit!! Esse documentário foi dirigido por Dominique Deluze em 1996 (eu fui pra lá em 2003 e em 2004, sempre em maio, durante o DEMF). Aparece um monte de cena da cidade, tem entrevista com Derrick May, Juan Atkins, Kenny Larkin, e até o Mad Mike aceitou falar, só que de máscara, claro. E o shortinho do Kevin Saunderson? Aparece também Ken Ishii, todos novinhos, fofos. O filme não é sobre Detroit techno, é sobre a cena de música eletrônica no mundo, por isso, aparecem produtores como ele e o Autechre, etc. Mas o começo é basicamente Detroit. Só encontrei esses 4 trechos, mas acho que são os mais legais (pra mim, que sou mega suspeita). É muito emocionante! O que o Derrick May fala é relevante até hoje… ele é incrível. Eu passo mal. Aquela história que ele fala de construir uma música nova com músicas é muito real e isso é o que mais me comove num set de DJ, como ele faz isso, é bafo… O moço que está falando freneticamente com ele uma hora sobre uma história sci-fi é o Abdul Qadim Haqq, artista gráfico de inúmeros discos de Detroit inclusive do próprio Derrick May e do Underground Resistance. O Haqq é o assunto do meu próximo post, com direito a entrevista e tudo.

Enjoy!

1996 parece ontem, mas isso tudo já é História com H maiúsculo.