Jeff Mills

For the American football player, see Jeff Mills (American football).
Jeff Mills

Mills performing in 2010
Background information
Also known as The Wizard, True Faith
Born (1963-06-18) June 18, 1963[1]
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.[1]
Genres Techno, Minimal
Occupation(s) DJ, Record producer, Composer
Instruments Turntables, Synthesizers
Years active 1980–present
Labels Axis Records

Jeff Mills (born June 18, 1963, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American DJ, record producer and composer[1][2] Mills is a founder of Underground Resistance, a techno collective formed with 'Mad' Mike Banks in the late 1980s. While Mills left the group to explore his own ventures, the collective continues to be a mainstay of Detroit's music scene.[2] He went by The Wizard, a moniker he used since the early 1980s, retiring the name in 2013.[3]

Mills is the founder and owner of Axis Records, a record label he founded in 1992.[4] The label is based in Chicago, Illinois and is responsible for the release of much of his solo work.

Mills has received recognition for his work both as a DJ and producer. Eminem mentioned Mills in the lyrics to a song and he was knighted Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.[5] Mills was also featured in Man From Tomorrow, a documentary about techno music that he produced along with French filmmaker Jacqueline Caux.[5] He continued working in film, releasing Life to Death and Back, a film he shot in the Egyptian wing of the Louvre Museum where he also had a four-month residency.[5]

Career

Jeff Mills performing in Detroit in 2007.

Early career and radio DJ

A 1981 graduate of Mackenzie High School, Mills started his career in the early 1980s using the name "The Wizard."[6][7] He performed DJ tricks like beat juggling and scratching during his sets, some of which were pre-recorded. He had a nightly show called The Wizard at WDRQ and later at WJLB under the same name. He would highlight local techno artists, giving light to artists such as Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson and Juan Atkins.[2][8]

In his early career, Mills managed numerous residencies in the Detroit area.[8] He credits the The Necto as the residency where he was able to experiment with new ideas in techno music.[8] Mills played The Necto where he began incorporating concepts such as different equipment setups, including positioning himself on the dance floor with the people.[8] For his radio DJ spots, Mills had a music spending budget to use for his sets. Mills would also drive as far as Toronto or Chicago in order to purchase newly released music.[8]

Underground Resistance

Mills is a founding member of Underground Resistance, a techno collective that he started with former Parliament bass player 'Mad' Mike Banks.[1] The group embraced revolutionary rhetoric and only appeared in public dressed in ski masks and black combat suits. Mills never "officially" left the group, but did begin to pursue his own ventures outside of the collective.[2] Many of Underground Resistance's labelmate's early releases were the product of various experiments by Banks and Mills, both solo and in collaboration, before Mills left the collective in 1991 to achieve international success as solo artists and DJ. The collective continues to be a mainstay of Detroit's music scene.[2]

UR related the aesthetics of early Detroit Techno to the complex 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. UR’s songs 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. Another form of UR’s rebellion concerns the rejection of the commercialization of techno. This is evident in the messages scratched in UR’s records, lyrics and sounds expressing economic independence from major record labels.[9]

Solo work and independent labels

The Tresor Club in Berlin where Mills was a resident prior to launching Axis Records.

Mills left Underground Resistance in 1991 to pursue his own ventures. He relocated from Detroit, first to New York, then Berlin (as a resident at the Tresor club),[10] and then Chicago. There in 1992, with fellow Detroit native Robert Hood, he set up the record label Axis, and later, sub-labels Purpose Maker, Tomorrow, and 6277, all aiming for a more minimal sound than most of the techno being produced in those years.[11][12]

Mills released Blue Potential in 2006, a live album of him playing with the 70 piece Montpelier Philharmonic Orchestra in 2005.[13] The album was a remix for classical interpretation, following musical acts such as Radiohead.[13] In 2013, he released Where Light Ends, an album inspired by the Japanese astronaut Mamoru Mohri and his first trip to space.[5]

Film, soundtracks, and documentary

Mills performed a live set in January 2015 at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco, California.[14] The set was performed with four turntables to create a cinemix soundtrack for Woman in the Moon, the 1929 silent film from Fritz Lang.[14] The set was performed during a screening of the film at the center.[15] Mills has previously completed work highlighting Lang's career, including composing, performing, and releasing a soundtrack to Lang's 1927 silent film Metropolis, releasing the soundtrack in 2000.[14]

Mills became involved in film with the help of French filmmaker Jacqueline Caux.[16][17] He helped Caux produce the film Man From Tomorrow, a documentary about techno music that featured Mills.[18] He continued in the film industry with the release of the independent film Life to Death and Back which he shot in the Egyptian wing of the Louvre Museum in France, the same museum where he had a four-month residency.[19]

Music style

In his DJ sets, Mills usually uses three decks, a Roland TR-909 drum-machine, and up to seventy records in one hour. Mills' Exhibitionist DVD, from 2004, features him mixing live on three decks and CD player in a studio.[20] In 2011, Mills switched to using three or four CD decks for most of his club appearances, instead of the usual Technics turntables.[21]

He was mentioned by Detroit rapper Eminem in his song "Groundhog Day", from his album The Marshall Mathers LP 2.[5] Eminem says: "...and discovered this DJ who was mixing, I say it to this day, if you ain't listened to The Wizzard, you ain't have a fu**ing clue what you was missing..."[22]

Art exhibits

Mills is also an artist and has shown his works at exhibits internationally.[23] His works have included "Man of Tomorrow," a portrait of Mills that shows his perception of the future[24] as well as "Critical Arrangements" exhibited at Pompidou Centre in 2008 as a part of "Le Futurimse à Paris – use avant-garde explosive."[25] One of his most notable works was exhibited in 2015. Known as "The Visitor," it was a sculpture of a drum machine inspired by a UFO sighting in Los Angeles from the 1950s.[26]

Discography

Studio albums

Year, Title (Label)[27]

Extended plays

Year, Title (Label)

Filmography

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Cooper, Sean (1963-06-18). "Jeff Mills – Music Biography, Credits and Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved 2012-09-28.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Demby, Eric (February 15, 2001). "Detroit Techno Star Jeff Mills Finally Going Home". MTV News. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Jeff Mills To Retire The Wizard Alias". Fact Magazine. January 23, 2013. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Jeff Mills to release Axis Records retrospective". Fact Mag. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Turner, Zeke (January 16, 2015). "An American Techno D.J. Beloved Overseas Comes to Brooklyn". The New York Times. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Jeff Mills gets Down with FORWARD and 88". 88 Music Blog. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
  7. ↑ http://www.classmates.com/yearbooks/Mackenzie-High-School/246437?page=0
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Warren, Tamara (October 11, 2012). "Five questions with Jeff Mills, master DJ and founder of Axis Records". The Detroit Free Press. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  9. ↑ Schaub, Christopher (October 2009). "Beyond the Hood? Detroit Techno, Underground Resistance, and African American Metropolitan Identity Politics". Inter America. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  10. ↑ Wasacz, Walter. "Berlin, Detroit, and reinvention through creative industries". Southeast Michigan Startup. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Jeff Mills: la Detroit Techno infiamma i Magazzini Generali" (in French). Mentelocale.it. November 14, 2014. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  12. ↑ Kakaire, Christine. "Techno icon Jeff Mills talks about 20 years of Axis Records and retiring The Wizard". BeatPort. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  13. 1 2 Dene, Lewis. "Jeff Mills Blue Potential Review". The BBC. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  14. 1 2 3 Palmer, Tamara (December 15, 2014). "Jeff Mills Debuts Live "Cine-Mix" in San Francisco". NBC Bay Area. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  15. ↑ Baines, Josh (February 17, 2015). "What Lies Beyond Tomorrow: In Conversation with Jeff Mills". Vice. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  16. ↑ "DJ Jeff Mills: The Man From Tomorrow". France 24. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Jeff Mills film, Man From Tomorrow, premieres in Paris". The Wire. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  18. ↑ Matthew, Terry. "Jeff Mills Man From Tomorrow". Channel 5 Chicago. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  19. ↑ Ryce, Andrew (September 18, 2014). "Jeff Mills behind new film, Life To Death And Back". Resident Advisor. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  20. ↑ Duncan, Chris (July 7, 2010). "Jeff Mills & Jackmaster at Sub Club". The Skinny. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Axis of the Primeval: Jeff Mills Talks Space, Time, Techno". SPIN.
  22. ↑ Eminem. "Groundhog Day Lyrics". Genius.com. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
  23. ↑ "Jeff Mills". Galerie-Vallois.com. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
  24. ↑ "Five Sound Questions To Jeff Mills". Everyday Listening. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
  25. ↑ "Jeff Mills: Critical Arrangements / Le Futuisme Paris". Vernissage TV (in French). Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  26. ↑ "Check out Jeff Mills' UFO-inspired drum machine". Fact Mag. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
  27. ↑ "Jeff Mills Discography". Discogs. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  28. ↑ Zlatopolsky, Ashley Jeff Mills: 'These visions aren’t supposed to come from black guys from Detroit' The Guardian. September 23, 2015
  29. 1 2 "We revisit The Wizard's groundbreaking Exhibitionsist film for TechnoTuesday". Skiddle.com. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
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