LIVE Performance by Jeff Mills and Mike Banks - June 21st, 2008 at the Sonar Festival in Barcelona!!
The first joint album of Jeff Mills and Mike Banks since their work
together with Underground Resistance is due for release in June.
In
1992 Jeff Mills, Mike Banks and Robert Hood - still known at that time
as Underground Resistance - released what was probably the most
futuristic album in modern electronic music: “X-102 discovers The Rings
Of Saturn” (Tresor.004/UR), as part of their X-10… series. The tracks
on X-102 were reduced to minimal levels, looping with a marginal BMP
rate, spacey and sometimes entirely without beats. This was
revolutionary: listeners had just become accustomed to the
uncompromising Detroit techno sound that the three of them had produced
so far. Thus on the way to Saturn they surpassed even themselves, if
not a decade jump then at least 15 years ahead of their time.
The
transition phase between former recording techniques and the computer
age resounded on the album, and seemed as if it had been recorded with
computers that had not yet been invented. In fact, the unconventional
tracks resulted from a process of cutting up the taped material and
then pasting together again. The album has not been available since the
end of the last century and thus it’s become difficult for the new
generation to appreciate the work. One also tends to forget that very
little was known at that time about the second largest planet in our
solar system.
Only since the Cassini/Huygen missions have we been able to gather
images and awareness about Saturn, its moons, and the consistency of
its rings. Jeff Mills’ fascination for the planet remained intact but
to reanimate the project he had but one requirement: only together with
Mike Banks. Until now this hasn’t been possible because since the
1990’s both co-founding members of UR have gone their separate musical
ways.
But finally they’ve again joined forces to activate
together their second Saturn mission. Indeed this alone makes “X-102
rediscovers The Rings Of Saturn” a milestone. But the innovators
wouldn’t be such if they didn’t rediscover the tracks from the first
mission (which therefore again indirectly involves Robert Hood) and on
that base produce new, unreleased tracks reflecting their personal
development and the knowledge gained through modern space research. 20
tracks of pure techno magic, a return to the interstellar probing that
brings some of the original abstraction to skillful levels of
contemporary electronic music. This is not old-meets-new: this is
innovation restructured with masterly polishing - timeless.
So
far one singe audiovisual live performance of “X-102 rediscovers The
Rings Of Saturn” will take place: on June 21st, 2008 at the SONAR
Festival in Barcelona.
Watch the trailer back here or at the end of this article.
Tracklist CD:
01. Introduction (Original) - 1:24
02. Phoebe - 3:00
03. Daphnis (Keeler’s Gap) - 5:30
04. F-Ring - 3.56
05. Mimas - 4.50
06. Flickering Alderbaran #3 - 4.50
07. C-Ring - 3.31
08. Tethys - 1.30
09. Enceladus - 3:20
10. Water Spouts - 2.43
11. B-Ring (second look) - 2.29
12. Descending To The Surface - 4.31
13. Dione - 4.12
14. Discovery - 3.05
15. The Grandfather Paradox (Dr. Mallet’s Theory) - 2.54
16. Ground Zero (The Planet) - 7.34
17. The Flyby - 5.11
18. Titan - 3.52
19. Pan - 3.22
20. Lost Moons - 1.40
Tracklist 12”: “X-102-Titan” EP:
A1. Introduction - 1.24
A2. Titan - 3.52
A3. Pan - 3.22
B1. Adrift - 3.37
B2. Ground Zero (The Planet) - 7.34
For more information, please visit http://www.axisrecords.com
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