Underground Resistance is a
Detroit techno record label. UR has also been used as the name behind which several people have hidden.
Back in the day, 'Mad' Mike Banks, session keyboardist, Member of the House, and one of the Mechanics, got together with Jeff Mills, formerly of the Final Cut and the DJ behind the enigmatic Wizard radio show; D-Ha on keyboards; and Robert Hood as MC "The Noize". This new crew was created to combat the attack on African-American identity in dance music, or at least the one they saw during the European explosion of techno in the late 1980s.
UR started releasing records in 1990 with UR001 "Your Time is Up" by Underground Resistance feat. Yolanda. From there, their catalog gets a little...weird. There is no UR013, but there is a UR013.5, and there are two different records called UR018, for example, and their last three records have been numbered UR2000, UR2001, and UR3000. They continue to release records every so often, but very rarely does a CD come out with a UR number.
Probably the most striking thing about UR's media presence is their extreme militant character. They present themselves as soldiers against corruption and racism, killer bees that swarm to protect the hive when it's threatened. At the urging of the staff of National Sound Corporation, UR started etching propaganda messages into the runout grooves of their releases. One of their other names, X-102, is responsible for locked grooves, with their release "X-102 Discovers the Rings of Saturn", released on Tresor. Alan Oldham, aka DJ T-1000, started doing record sleeve artwork which could kick your ass all by itself.
Live, UR stayed anonymous. Mad Mike would hide his face under a bandana, and Rob Hood would don a gas mask. (What, you thought SlipKnot came up with it?) Jeff Mills took center stage on the wheels of steel, with D-Ha by his side. The anonymous thing caught on; Scan 7 performs in jumpsuits and ski masks, and only of the Drexciyan Wavejumpers' identites is known. Red Planet spins records behind a camouflage net. They stole The Punisher's logo and stuck big UR letters where the teeth were for their posters. The founder of Sublime Records says that UR's show in Tokyo was the reason people finally caught on to techno.
Underground Resistance is closely related to the Submerge distribution network, Red Planet, Local 3000, Somewhere in Detroit, Happy Records, Happy Soul, Shockwave Records, World Power Alliance, Vibe Records, and Night Groove Records. UR's live set (as Timeline, Galaxy 2 Galaxy, or Los Hermanos) consists of Mad Mike sans mask, DJ Dex, MIA, Darren McKinney, Gerald Mitchell, and Daiske.
Suburban Knight, Blake Baxter, Jeff Mills, The Vision, Drexciya, and Scan 7 have all released records on Tresor.