Underground Resistance "Expect No Mercy"

[Alan Oldham]

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked by Mike Banks to write the liner notes for the upcoming UR compilation "Expect No Mercy." I was flattered by the request and got to work. I thought I'd share my first draft with you here on Blackout. The CD will be out before Christmas, check www.submerge.com

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I was honored that I was asked to write the liner notes for "Expect No Mercy." As many of you know, I got my start as a press release writer for UR in 1990, then as the first UR "assault DJ" in '92. Those were some huge shoes to fill, coming in after Jeff Mills' departure, a real trial by fire. Even today, I am grateful to Mike Banks for believing in me during those early days.

The tracks selected here represent the beginning of a movement, the much-heralded "Second Generation." Detroit Techno was already an entrenched, globally-popular artform when Mike Banks and Jeff Mills came on the scene, monopolized at the time by the standard bearers; Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson.

Like the real Big Three, the automakers that dominated and controlled our Detroit landscape, the innovators also began to face upstart competition. Not from Europe, as would happen later, but from within their own backyard.

Underground Resistance was an unlikely alliance between two musical outsiders. DJ Jeff Mills, a.k.a. "The Wizard," a high school friend of mine who was already a legend in Detroit due to his hip-hop influenced WJLB mix show, and studio musician Mike Banks, who had played guitar in local '80s black rock band The Mechanixx. The band used to play at an East Side rock club called Traxx, and I went to high school with their lead singer, Gil Clark, who is the cousin of DJ Mike Clark, a.k.a. Agent X. I remember seeing the band twice as a kid, even before I knew Banks personally.

After several false starts dealing with local labels individually, Banks and Mills somehow decided to join forces, combining ideas, studio gear and resources. Militant rap group Public Enemy was big in those days, as was the Belgian body music outfit Front 242, on the industrial side. Taking elements from both, yet adding their own distinct personalities, Underground Resistance was born.

Despite all that, it was Juan Atkins who unwittingly gave UR their official start.

UR's "Sonic" EP had been completed, and a demo was given to Juan for his label Metroplex. The tape sat on the back burner for months, as Atkins was busy with other things. Tired of waiting, Mills and Banks mastered the record and put it out themselves. Thus, UR, the label, was kick-started.

In those days, the Europeans were always on the lookout for the new, post-Belleville Three Detroit talent, and UR emerged at the right time, with the right image, and the right music. They were a success on their own terms, almost from the start.

From there, UR went from strength to strength. Their concept record as X-101 was the very first release on Berlin's legendary Tresor label. Their "Riot" EP was the very first locally-produced double-pack ever. And who could forget their landmark anthem "The Punisher"? The World Power Alliance series (three separate tracks each produced by Mills, Banks, and Rob Hood, a.k.a. The Vision), which birthed the acid classic "Seawolf," was also on deck.

What I always liked about a lot of UR's tracks were that they were hard and dark. A lot of the electronic music coming out of Detroit at the time was slow, airy, borderline house. In my younger days, I liked my shit evil.

Certain people were getting a lot of props in the UK for putting out what amounted to the techno equivalent of easy-listening music. UR made their melodic, jazz-influenced tracks, too (made more viable by the fact that Mike Banks was a real player, not just a sequencer), but they always worked both sides, and I appreciated that. Mills with the 4/4 in mind, and Banks with the live piano solos and lush orchestration.

Mills' departure from UR in 1992 pushed the music to even darker places. I was around Banks a lot in those days rehearsing for the live shows, and it was a place you didn't necessarily want to be. Although "The Punisher" was strictly a Mills creation, the pure, analog evil of "Deathstar" and the breakbeat-driven, EPMD-sampling "Message to the Majors" were 100% Banks, his musical responses to Mills' leaving and the Malice Green police brutality case in Detroit, respectively.

Looking at the tracklisting for this CD, I can only hope that it's the first volume of a series. If you are a true UR fan, as I am, you know there's more to the story.

For myself, I'm the luckiest of all. You are listening to this great music. But I, in small part, lived it.

--Alan Oldham

[Traxx]

It reads pretty well so far alan...

[death on a stick]

What era does the compilation cover? Old or new UR? I didn't find anything about it on the Submerge front page, didn't look any further for the moment. I'm guessing old as the notes are all about the early stuff. Am I wrong or did you not publically lament the passing of the noisy "Death Star" era of UR a few years back?

The notes so far seem OK, perhaps just a little too personal. Very much one man's perspective and as such some people may find them difficult to connect with. Just wondering if they ought to be a little more general. Although, I guess there's a reason you were asked to write them.

[1992]

Ahh very nice. I didn't realize "T-1000" was a regular poster here, nice to see you here.

The proposed liner notes seem fine to me. I read it fast so I didn't pick up any errors (I wasn't looking for them either).

[OriginalTechnobastard]

What era does the compilation cover? Old or new UR? I didn't find anything about it on the Submerge front page, didn't look any further for the moment. I'm guessing old as the notes are all about the early stuff. Am I wrong or did you not publically lament the passing of the noisy "Death Star" era of UR a few years back?

The notes so far seem OK, perhaps just a little too personal. Very much one man's perspective and as such some people may find them difficult to connect with. Just wondering if they ought to be a little more general. Although, I guess there's a reason you were asked to write them.

I thought it was cool. I like that personal element contain in the writing. Notes were about how the group got together and their background, and how the certain releases came about. Something UR fans would cherish

[krakp0t]

one thing i never understood about the first few UR releases--

i bought "X-102 Discovers the Rings of Saturn" when it first came out and it appeared to read like -

artist - X-102
title- "X-102 Discovers the Rings of Saturn"
label - tresor
label - UR?

so who was it exactly? UR was the label and tresor was more the distributor? or was it the other way around?

i don't know that the connection between juan and them reads that clearly either. it seems mills and banks probably would've figured out a way of putting out "sonic destroyer" whether metroplex sat on it for months or not.

comparing the early UR stuff to "melodic housey stuff" from detroit or "easy listening" from UK seems a bit off the mark too. what really stood out about their work on those days was that the music was really incomparable to anything i'd ever heard.

reads pretty well otherwise.

[death on a stick]

X-102 was released on Tresor and UR.

[death on a stick]

http://www.discogs.com/release/22656

http://www.discogs.com/release/12764

[rantzen]

Great sleevenotes Alan.

[Alan Oldham]

Thanks, Andy

[tioneb]

i thnik the notes sounds good, coz they showed us the inner side of UR...

loads of us, europeans, have only seen the emerging of this music, of the label, the people conneted to it...

As a youngster, i actually first discovered these things in the opposite order : the people (the producers), the label, then the "music" in its great meaning.

So yeah, after some years ive learnt all that youve said, and of course for an UR compilation you purposely avoid some more "personnal" stories that have reached our fans' ear but definitely have to do with people and not with music...

so, well, our notes sound personnal, but good for the people who will discover the label through this compilation... Actually, who will buy it ? The fans owning all the eps , or the people just curious about this famous name ??? =)

[Louis Theroux]

great read, thanks very much.

could you possibly answer a question?

is there/what is the connection between UR & Sender Berlin/who are Sender Berlin exactly?

[Alan Oldham]

great read, thanks very much.

could you possibly answer a question?

is there/what is the connection between UR & Sender Berlin/who are Sender Berlin exactly?

There is no connection between UR and Sender Berlin that I know about. Sender Berlin are these two really cool German guys Stassy and Hendrik who put out music on Tresor. They're of the same new Berlin school as Alexander Kowalski and Pacou.

[Martin Dust]

Enjoyed that, you can't help but get personal - that's what UR is - on the ground and in your face...Anyone who's heard Mike talk knows that...

Good work Alan

[Alan Oldham]

MD, I'm up for doing some remixes in 2005 gimme a shout ;)

[conflict]

is this out yet?

[sputnik242]

MD, I'm up for doing some remixes in 2005 gimme a shout ;)

Now that is something to look forward to.
Though I do guess you mean 2006 really, unless of course you've created a time machine? Think I'll go check my Dust releases to see if history has changed! ;) :cheese:

Script looking good, enjoy lurking on your blog as well Alan :thumbsup:

[Alan Oldham]

MD, I'm up for doing some remixes in 2005 gimme a shout ;)

Now that is something to look forward to.
Though I do guess you mean 2006 really, unless of course you've created a time machine? Think I'll go check my Dust releases to see if history has changed! ;) :cheese:

Script looking good, enjoy lurking on your blog as well Alan :thumbsup:

Thanks. Hey, I don't think this CD ever came out. Banks moves in mysterious ways.