Underground Resistance live up to their name
Writing, performing or producing music, for some artists it’s not enough. They want their music to serve as a political instrument and ask what they can do for others with the aid of their work. Underground Resistance (commonly UR), a musical collective from Detroit, Michigan, USA, is one of them. They are the most militantly political example of modern Detroit Techno and have a strictly anti-mainstream business strategy. UR is a pool of independent producers and at the same time a social political project. The assets of the highly successful music production have been invested in their own building that serves as studio, for distribution and has a shop, and in projects like kindergartens, district projects, health insurance for artists or an employed social worker who gets in contact with talented young people that hang out in the streets.
Underground Resistance has been started in the late 1980s by Jeff Mills and Michael Anthony Banks (aka: Mad Mike). 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. They produced uncompromising music geared toward promoting awareness and facilitating political change. Many of Underground Resistance’s label early releases were the product of various experiments by Banks, Mills, and Hood. Mills and Hood left the collective in 1992 to achieve international success as solo artists and DJs. UR ist since then owned and operated by Mike Banks.
Underground Resistance - Wikipedia
