For techno aficionados, Jeff Mills needs no introduction as he represents the ultimate in minimal, hard but funky house and techno. More than just club tracks, his cleverly crafted compositions have been hailed as soundtracks to modern life and he has stated that each work represents the next part in a series of gradual progressions that is orchestrated by experiences and destiny. Jeff, the seminal Detroit techno originator who has been running his own Axis Records label since 1991, was originally one of the legendary Detroit techno collective Underground Resistance. He has been making music for well over a decade and has been DJ'ing for longer, including years spent as a radio DJ.
The best (or the most popular in all respects) techno-deejay in the world. And with a unique style: tracks are almost chopped up to bits only to withhold the strongest fragments for his relentless sound-collages. Three decks, a Roland 909 drum-machine and seventy records in one hour: at breakneck speed Mills manipulates beats and basslines, vinyl and frequencies. In the course of the eighties he was an influential radio-deejay under the pseudonym ‘The Wizard’. He used to spin obscure dance-records and new wave, far from the thermonuclear funk and minimal, throbbing clubtechno with which he would go on making a name for himself, inspiring lots of copycats. In ’90 Mills laid the foundation of the legendary Detroit techno collective Underground Resistance alongside ‘Mad’ Mike Banks (a former Parliament bass-player). Just like Public Enemy did some years before in hip hop, they confronted the mainstream music industry with revolutionary retorics. Dressed in uniforms with skimasks and black combat suits, they were ‘men on a mission’, aiming at giving techno more content and meaning. Mills would never leave UR officially, but later on he still went his own way. He moved to New York and after a short stay in Berlin (Tresor!) ended up in Chicago. There he set up his two labels, Axis and Purposemaker. Through all this, he stuck to his principles: grand theories and ambitious concepts. On the recent cd ‘Lifelike’ Mills turns to colour-psychology for a professional screening of his personality. And the music primarily shows the subdued, soulful and melancholic Mills, this time maker of serene electronics with a surprising depth and emotion.
Well-known cd’s by Mills are the 3 volumes of ‘Wavevorm Transmission’ and the Axis-compilation ‘The other Day’. Famous dancefloor material : ‘The bells’, ‘The Dancer’ and ‘Alarms’. -- http://www.5voor12.com