us Jeff Mills, Robert Hood & Mike Banks: Rediscover Saturn

The techno dreamteam of Jeff Mills, Mike Banks and Robert Hood has returned. After spending years persuing their own performances, projects and publications, the trio formerly known as Underground Resistance has released their second collaborative album. Out now on Berlin-based label Tresor, “X-102 re-discovers the Rings Of Saturn” is the logical follow-up to "X-102 discovers The Rings Of Saturn" and sees Mills, Banks and Hood taking their minimal aesthetics far beyond the stereotypical bassdrum- and hihat stomps haunting clubs at the moment. The original album, released in 1992, already proved to be deciding in the sense that it freed the Detroit sound from monotony and cliches, offering a collection that was eclectic and fresh, constantly searching for intersections with genres like ambient and electronica, remaining entirely beatless on several occasions. Even though Tresor’s claim that this was “probably most futuristic album in modern electronic music” may be slightly exagerated, there can be no doubt that Jeff Mills, Robert Hood and Mike Banks were redefining the term “techno” in a dramatic and incisive way.

After the success of "X-102 discovers The Rings Of Saturn", the motivation to record a second album in the same vein was high. As their indivisual waves carreid the musicians to different corners of the world and to their own, unique niches, however, it became increasingly harder to find the joint studio time required for a worthwhile successor. In the end, it was Jeff Mills’ fascination for the astronomical dimensions of the project and his stuborness for insisting on the inclusion of original Underground Resistance member Mike Bans which proved to be decisive in getting the record together.

As portions of the album were based on material from the 1992 sessions, it also indirectly includes Robert Hood – and by juxtaposing it with new pieces, the record has turned out a mixture between the old and the recent, between a classic from the past and a timeless work for the future. “X-102 re-discovers the Rings Of Saturn” blends relentless four to the floor action with atmospheric backwards loops and the sweetest spacehoney-synth-solos you’ve ever heard: Both the perfect DJ set for a disco on the innermost ring of Saturn and a soundtrack to a Japanese Anime movie.

Homepage: Tresor Records
By Tobias Fischer, published 2008-08-05

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