Jeff Mills, also known as "theWizard", is an American DJ, record producer, and composer. In the late 1980s Mills founded the techno collective Underground Resistance with fellow Detroit techno producers 'Mad' Mike Banks and Robert Hood but left the group to pursue a career as a solo artist in the early 90s. Mills founded the Chicago based Axis Records in 1992, which is responsible for the release of much of his solo work.
Tresor is a techno nightclub in Berlin and a record label.
Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mills, Kevin Saunderson, Blake Baxter, Drexciya, Mike Banks, James Pennington and Robert Hood. Artists like Terrence Parker and his lead vocalist, Nicole Gregory, set the tone for Detroit's piano techno house sound.
James Pennington, also known as Suburban Knight, is a DJ and producer with Underground Resistance (UR), an independent record label based in Detroit, United States. Music by Pennington and other UR members was featured in the video game Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition, which is set on the streets of Detroit.
Derrick May, also known as Mayday and Rhythim Is Rhythim, is an American electronic musician from Belleville, Michigan, United States. May is credited with pioneering techno music in the 1980s along with collaborators Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson, commonly known as The Belleville Three.
Underground Resistance are an American musical collective from Detroit, Michigan. Producing primarily Detroit techno since 1990 with a grungy four-track musical aesthetic, they are also renowned for their militant political and anti-corporate ethos.
Drexciya was an American electronic music duo from Detroit, Michigan, consisting of James Stinson (1969–2002) and Gerald Donald.
Robert Hood is an American electronic music producer and DJ. He is a founding member of the group Underground Resistance as a 'Minister of Information' with Mad Mike Banks and Jeff Mills. He is often considered to be one of the founders of minimal techno. In 1994, Hood founded the minimal techno label M-Plant in Detroit.
Galaxy 2 Galaxy is a live electronic and jazz music collective featuring members of Underground Resistance. The name comes from an EP created by Mike Banks in 1993. Fame in the techno community rose from the release of A High Tech Jazz Compilation in 2005.
DJ Rolando a.k.a. The Aztec Mystic is an American techno DJ and producer from Detroit, Michigan, United States. A former member of Detroit’s famed Underground Resistance from 1994 to 2004, he is best known for his song "Knights of the Jaguar." Rolando parted ways with UR and relocated to Edinburgh in 2004, where he remains an active DJ, frequently appearing at prominent European venues including Tresor and Berghain.
Blake Baxter is an American techno musician, associated with the first wave of Detroit techno. AllMusic called him "perhaps the most underrated figure" of the early Detroit techno scene.
430 West Records is an independent record label based in Detroit, Michigan, United States, formed in 1990 by Lawrence Burden, Lenny Burden, and Lynell Burden, just months after recording their debut record for Derrick Mays' Transmat label. 430 West was formed as an outlet for the Burden Brothers' own productions. Later it was expanded to be the home for releases by electronic music artists Jay Denham, Terrence Parker, Eddie Fowlkes, Aux 88, Wild Planet, and Gerald Mitchell, among others. In 1998, 430 West also became the musical home for the trio's youngest brothers, Lance Burden and Lorne Burden.
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range of 120 to 150 beats per minute (BPM). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often characterized by a repetitive four on the floor beat. Artists may use electronic instruments such as drum machines, sequencers, and synthesizers, as well as digital audio workstations. Drum machines from the 1980s such as Roland's TR-808 and TR-909 are highly prized, and software emulations of such retro instruments are popular.
Kelley Hand, known professionally as Kelli Hand and K-HAND, was a musician and DJ from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Hand was widely credited with opening the door for Black women's participation in the previously male-dominated techno and electronic music communities during the 1990s and was known as the "First Lady of Detroit techno". A prolific DJ with an "impossibly deep catalogue", Hand continued to produce and perform music up until her death in 2021.
Alan D. Oldham sometimes performing as DJ T-1000, is an American techno DJ, producer, label owner, graphic artist, and painter.
Dietmar-Maria "Dimitri" Hegemann is a German nightclub owner, cultural activist and community organizer, currently living and working in Berlin, Germany.
Abdul Qadim Haqq, also known as Haqq and The Ancient, is an American visual artist who was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan.
"No UFO's" is a 1985 techno song by Juan Atkins under the alias of Model 500. It was released on Atkins own label Metroplex. The song was the first track released after the split of Atkins' previous group Cybotron. The music followed similar themes of the previous group with science fiction and alienation but featured less of a song structure than Cybotron's music leading the track to be often identified as one of the earliest techno songs.
Santiago Salazar a.k.a. DJ S² is a Chicano DJ in Los Angeles who began his career in the underground dance music scene in the early 1990s. Salazar was invited to Underground Resistance in Detroit by Mike Banks, where he stayed from 2002 to 2006. He released his debut album Chicanismo in 2015 and received positive reviews for subsequent albums and EPs.
Esteban Adame is an East Los Angeles DJ who emerged from the Chicano/Latino rave or party scene in the 1990s. He started DJing at the age of 15. In 2004, he was asked by "Mad" Mike Banks of Underground Resistance to join the music collective in Detroit, Michigan. Banks reportedly was interested when he "found out Chicanos from Southern California were interested in UR records, sensing a common ground between Los Angeles's Latino enclaves and the Black neighborhoods of Detroit." Adame would go on to play piano for the label's electronic jazz band Galaxy 2 Galaxy.
