Underground Resistance

Underground Resistance

Underground Resistance is a Detroit techno collective formed in Detroit, United States, and active from 1989 to the present. It is known for a politically charged approach to techno and for maintaining a strong DIY ethic and a deliberately low-profile public image. Members have included Jeff Mills, “Mad” Mike Banks, Robert “Noise” Hood, Gerald Donald, Mark Flash, Marc Floyd, Ghetto Tech, Cornelius Harris, Andre Holland, Michael Anthony Banks, Dan Caballero, Mike Clark, Raphael Merriweathers Jr., Gerald Mitchell, James Pennington, James Stinson, Mark Taylor and Rolando Ray Rocha.

The group develops a sound rooted in Detroit techno, with influences from Motown and Chicago soul, and combines lo-fi techno, acid and electro. Its work is tied to social and political awareness, and its catalogue is shaped by Banks, Mills and Hood working in different solo and collective configurations in the early period.

Underground Resistance begins in the early 1990s with Jeff Mills, Mad Mike Banks and Robert Hood, and the trio’s releases help define the early catalogue. Mills and Hood leave in 1992 to pursue wider solo careers, while Banks continues to run the project. Under the UR banner, he releases EPs including Return of Acid Rain, Message to the Majors and Galaxy to Galaxy, and issues records by artists such as Drexciya, Suburban Knight and Scan 7.

The early 1990s also see the start of the Red Planet 12-inch series, which includes the tracks Stardancer and Sex in Zero Gravity, the latter with Eddie “Flashin’” Fowlkes. The first full-length credited to Underground Resistance is Interstellar Fugitives, released in 1998. The wider UR and Submerge Headquarters move from 2030 Grand River to 3000 E Grand Blvd., after which the collective adds figures such as DJ 3000, S², The Aquanauts, Buzz Goree and the live group Los Hermanos.