Jeff Mills (Axis) interview on Ceoltronic Radio 09/02/2012

Station RTE Pulse

Programme Ceoltronic Radio with Will Kinsella

TX Date 09/02/2012

TX Time 22-24:00

Press: Introducing the "Apocalypse Now Artist Series" we have a rare radio interview with Detroit Techno Pioneer and all round ExtraTechnoTerrestial Jeff Mills following his sell out show in the Button Factory last Friday night with Apocalypse Now.

Apocalypse Now is a series of monthly shows counting down to the end of the Mayan Calendar presented by Ceoltronic Radio and the Button Factory. Jeff/The Wizard's radio show on WJLB in the 80's was in fact the original inspiration for Ceoltronic Radio back in 2005. This is a long awaited interview but it is certainly worth the wait (in gold).

Thank you Jeff Mills. Respect.

Bio:

Techno legend Jeff Mills requires no introduction but....

Mills is part of the glorious history of electronic music .Underground Resistance founder, musical adventurer and an ace of the three deck mix. Producer of influential singles like 'Sonic Destroyer', 'The Bells',‘Waveform' and ‘Sonic' and the heroic 'Purpose Maker' and ‘X-102 series’. There is a reason they call it futurist Millsian techno. Jeff has been championed for his music's relentless pursuit of hardness and his stripped-down, almost industrial DJ sets with its dark stabs and spaced out beats. This futurist is more complex than he first appears, embodying an artistic ambition, which reaches far beyond simple techno music and is leagues ahead of his fellow DJ's.

Born in June 1963 in Detroit (the historic capital of today's techno), Jeff is of the same generation as its illustrious pioneers (Juan Atkins was born in '62, Derrick May in '63 and Kevin Saunderson in '64). With six shows a week on local WDRQ and WJLB radios, the young Jeff (under twenty years old at this point) was so talented on the decks that he was rapidly nicknamed ‘The Wizard'. Jeff then created his own label, Axis Records and collaborated with the Tresor label in Berlin. And so he commenced his rapid conquest of the global techno planet, thanks to powerful music and a mixing technique as fast as it is ingenious. Alongside characters like Laurent Garnier and Carl Cox, Jeff incarnated the techno tornado, which was unleashed across the western world throughout the nineties.

Even if Jeff Mills has never stopped releasing minimal, obsessive and percussive records for the dance floor, his music is more varied than it first seems. During special parties his mixes combine house, funk and soul, appealing to those who had previously been resistant to his brand of techno. On CD or limited edition singles, Jeff's music is more atmospheric and melodious. Rhythms are muted, with swing bass, liquid sounds, ample synths and dreamlike keyboards revealing another side of his character, whose inspiration comes from beyond the clubs. His music is a strange and cosmic jazz, with the voluntarily symphonic and mysterious attributes of film music. 2012 shows no sign of letting up for Jeff with a year of celebrations for 20 years of Axis and new album ‘Messenger’.