First formed in 1989 by
"Mad" Mike Banks and
Jeff Mills, UR related the
aesthetics of early
Detroit techno to the 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. In contrast to techno that preceded UR, UR tried to appeal to lower class African Americans in Detroit. UR's tracks created a sense of self-exploration, experimentation and the ability to change yourself and circumstances. Additionally, UR wanted to establish a means of identification beyond traditional lines of race and ethnicity. By targeting lower class African Americans, UR intended to inspire black men to get out of the poverty cycle in the city. Their mission was to return techno music to the underground: underground not meaning experimental and unpopular music, but rather a deliberate effort to create sonic communities on the periphery of mainstream culture as resistance against the socio-economic racial hierarchies. It was about providing new ways for lower class African Americans to form their identities. The Underground Resistance's politics extended to providing alternative identities to inner city African American youth, other than the hyper-masculine, hard and violent identities existing within the city. This was a gendered group, however, and the UR focused their attention on young black men. Another form of UR's rebellion concerns the rejection of the commercialization of techno. This is evident in the messages scratched in UR vinyl, lyrics and sounds expressing economic independence from major record labels. Jeff Mills was already an established technical DJ who came from a background of "
industrial music", which was punchy, rigid, and influenced by European rock n roll with hubs in Belgium and Chicago. Mills was heavily influenced by the sound of groups like Belgium-based
Front 242, and formed the group
Final Cut in 1989 with Tony Srock for Paragon Records. After a falling out with producer Jerry Capaldi involving unequal power dynamics between the white suburban executives and the Black musicians, Final Cut left the label. Mills also left Final Cut in 1990, after which he joined Banks, whom he knew from early sessions at Paragon. Banks was also working on funk and house-inspired projects with the group "Members of the House." At this time, Robert Hood was going by Robert Noise, and created artwork for the group's 1987 LP. Banks had also previously been a part of a group called "the Mechanics," which sometimes covered
Kraftwerk's songs live, again demonstrating the shift in the popularity of electric music from the house scene in Chicago to white artists and the European market. The goal of Underground Resistance would be to bring these sounds back to the communities that created them. As Underground Resistance, Banks and Mills tried to get
Juan Atkins of
The Belleville Three and
Cybotron to release their first record on his
Metroplex label but he did not end up getting to the record quickly enough. The duo ended up releasing the record themselves, establishing their ethos for independent music releases, describing their sound as a "rumor in the music." The group attempted to merge the sounds of both Final Cut and Members of the House on their first track The Theory, but really came into their sound by the fourth release, Waveform (1991). Their sound was informed by their lived realities as well as the music scene at the time, namely the "Reagan era of inner-city economic recession" that particularly affected Detroit, along with the longstanding racial relations of the country that led to the rise and collapse of the Black Panther Party. Their ethos consists of Afro-futurist and anti-corporate sentiments that center the self-fashioning of their own image and control of their production and distribution. Their move against forces destroying their communities included a rejection of hedonism and the image of techno as drug music. They also have a persona that emphasizes anonymity to push back against the profiling of Black DJs, performing wearing balaclavas and touting the nondescript "UR" logo. This move was meant to work against the idea of the "superstar DJ," emphasizing the mission of the music as a communal project. This anonymity is emphasized by the legion of artists that cycle through the collective, notably including
Gerald Mitchell,
DJ Rolando, and
James Stinson of
Drexciya. In response to the economic reality of Black Detroiters at the time, Underground Resistance became involved with Submerge, a "supportive economic community" of labels and musicians but also lawyers and financial experts that allowed musicians to experiment with a financial safety net. 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. In a 2006 interview, Mills responds to that claim: "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". Mills continues: "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." Many of UR's earliest output would be the product of various experiments by Banks, Mills, and Hood – both solo and in collaboration. "The Theory" and "Eye Of The Storm" (Sonic EP) were among the two earliest UR tracks to be released in 1990, followed by a stream of EPs and singles including "Riot", "Acid Rain", and "Jupiter Jazz". From Submerge came the Underground Resistance side projects X-101 and X-102. Under the aliases
X-101 and
X-102, the trio released both EPs such as "Sonic Destroyer" and "Groundzero (The Planet)" and the albums "X-101" and "X-102 Discovers The Rings of Saturn". When Mills and Hood moved on from the collective in 1992 to achieve international success as solo artists and DJs, Banks continued to lead UR releasing EPs during the mid-1990s such as "Return of Acid Rain", "Message to the Majors", and excursions into
Nu Jazz on "Hi-Tech Jazz" as
Galaxy 2 Galaxy. Increasingly acclaimed artists such as
DJ Rolando,
Suburban Knight, and
Drexciya also joined the collective. "Message to the Majors", released in 1992, saw UR in full opposition to the music industry and the commercialization of Techno. In the album notes, the collective writes, "Message to all murderers on the Detroit Police Force -- We'll see you in hell." What's made clear by this oppositional rhetorics is that UR's "commitment to metropolitan politics and the criticism of its racist dimension seem to be at least equally important." Their website proclaims the following call to action, encapsulating their attitudes towards the formal music economy: ''Isn't it obvious that music and dance are the keys to the universe? ''
So called primitive animals and tribal humans have known this for thousands of years! We urge all brothers and sisters of the underground to create and transmit their tones and frequencies no matter how so called primitive their equipment may be. Transmit these tones and wreak havoc on the programmers! Long live the underground! - Underground Resistance == Conflict with Sony BMG ==