Jeff Mills: Let there be techno

The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH

I’ve never really been a fan of electronic music, of any kind of it to be fair. Very likely the reason for this might very well be the fact that there is no tradition of this kind of music in Getafe (my hometown, recently famous not just because of the football team but because of the corrupt-but-funny Mayor we have), and even If there had been any I’d always stuck to the Rockn’n Roll thing. I’ve always considered myself as a quite open minded guy when music is concerned, and so it never really was a problem to a house music club if that was the plan. Never enjoyed it too much, never suffered too much either.

This is starting to change. There are several facts that may explain my recent approach to electronic music. The first and main one is that, as opposite as in Spain, here enjoying electronic music and clubbing is not a synonym of wearing sportswear, have a shaved head with a dodgy crest and being an aggressive moron. In other words, you can be a normal chap and enjoy techno clubbing in huge places where yes, maybe everybody is having drugs, but that’s just the only point that makes any different if compared with any other type of place. And, bloody hell, everybody takes drugs everywhere here in London (easy mate, I don’t), so really that’s not a point at all.

The second, and more plausible one, is the quality of the music. It’s not the same Paco Pil than Carl Cox, and it’s not the same thing Garnier than Chimo Bayo, no matters how funny the latter is. There is no bakalao here in London, the closest thing is just Trance music, but fairly well edited and recorded. Also, it seems that almost everybody is able to spot a whole bunch of differences between techno, house, acid house, techno house, trance, drum and bass, hardcore, electro and God knows how many more different styles. I can’t, but I’m starting to improve on this as well. And when you start to pay attention, you realize that not everything is just ’chunda chunda’, but that as it seems fairly easy to tell the difference between Ska, Grunge, Brit Pop, rock or Industrial music, the same thing is in the electronic side.

Anyway, all this is about yesterday. Jeff Mills presented in ICA in London a new mix of a classic, ‘X-102 Discovers the Rings of Saturn’. And was a really amazing night, I have to say.
First, let’s frame Mr. Mills. This guy is one of the most revolutionary DJs in music. He and some friends of Detroit invented Techno music as it is understood today, something as 25 years ago. He is 45 now, and in person he really looks like more like my father than like a techno DJ. Altogether with Mike Banks he founded Underground Resistance, the foundations for pretty much all the techno we listen today. And he is an absolute gentleman and a professional of the music, indeed a musician would be the most accurate world. He does not take drugs, he rarely drinks and while performing live he doesn’t behave as a stupid overexcited clown, focusing on the music and the performance instead.

Second, let’s talk about the project (and all this was said in the Q&A chat we had later). X-102 was a project accomplished by Robert Hood, Mike Banks and Jeff Mills (the three of them alive techno legends) on 1992, and, willing to immerse themselves in an unknown world, the used the solar system and more concretely Saturn (because of the analogy of its rings and a vinyl shape) to create new sound and a concept album, one of the firsts in electronic music ever created. As the physical reality of the planets was so overwhelming that it was no possible to translate it literally into sounds, they opted for imagining what kind of sounds may hear someone who went to Saturn for the first time. As at that time no images or solid information about the planets was available, they just created a composition using the geometries and inspirations they had at that moment. It took them 3 months to create it, and I can promise it’s a lovely piece of art.

Some years later, Nasa Cassini/Huygen probe got amazing pictures of the whole solar system and nebulas, including some impressive ones about Saturn. It handed an incredible opportunity to Mr. Mills to reedit the original work and add images to it, creating an impressive effect.
And finally, he decided to go in a limited tour to show his work. Just four cities (Barcelona, in Sonar last year), Milan, Berlin and London have been lucky enough to enjoy it. And the venue he decided to do it in London was ICA.

ICA is a contemporary arts centre in London. It is one of those places that make you think how differently is culture understood here an in Spain, for instance. The opportunity of go to the cinema, enjoy live music in an amazing bar, enjoy modern painting in a museum, or attend to any type of interesting event, all of it in the same venue in Trafalgar Square and opened seven days a week until 1 am… well, that’s not the sort of thing Gallardon, Aguirre or Zapatero think about when they have culture in mind, is it? It’s more like: let’s make it boring, so they will not come, so they will not think, and so they will stay on their places watching Factor X or Big Brother. Fuck off!!!

So put it altogether, add my friend Cesar into the mix, and get an amazing night as a result. A projection of Mill’s X-102 images and music in a cinema, with the volume at maximum level in the dolby sourround system, and with a small crowd (around 300 lucky chaps) respectfully listening it and enjoying an unique experience… well, what else can I say.

On the top of that, add cheap beer you can drink while watching paintings or even watching the movie, a Question and Answers chat afterwards with Jeff Mills (as the group was small it was really interesting to interchange opinions and experiences with the man, even if I obviously not participated actively), and the afterparty in ICA’s bar, hosted by him with his always incredible Detroit techno and an also amazing guest… well, what can I really add?

Yes, the morning after the hung over was horrible. And yes, we paid 3.50 for a small glass of pistachios. And yes, you cannot do that everyday simply because at that music volume you would finish deaf off in a couple of weeks.

An incredible experience.

PS: I'll add some pictures later, and some linking as well. But I wanted to post it before the weekend, now I remember it :)