Where are the heirs?

A collective of artists embodying the values of an emerging community in the making, the members of UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE have been recognized as emblematic personalities of the TECHNO MOVEMENT since the 90s. Their influence as well as their commitment have made them the leading figures of a new form of counter-culture for the time. Coming from a tumultuous social, cultural and political context, they are also the children of a contemporary urban modernity for whom the rise of new democratized technologies has, against all expectations, favoured their blossoming. By having themselves defined the contours of the practice of their "art", they will have succeeded in setting themselves apart from the conformist standards of the music industry. By their almost autarkic management of their initial ascent, they tried, in the manner of the German group Kraftwerk, to escape the consumerist diktats of a voracious, perverse, greedy, soulless star-system... Remaining faithful to their ideals as well as to their roots, the members of this aptly named collective embodied a new form of expression that was salvific in many ways, and which was exported and seductive, In spite of themselves, beyond many borders... Gathered and joining forces, these natives of the city of Detroit in Michigan (USA) have from the beginning carried certain social and societal aspirations, giving substance to a form of momentum tinged with a political and militant musical universe which very quickly echoed all the way to the European continent.

Symbolizing Detroit techno, it is in the heart of large German, English, Belgian or Dutch cities that the sound of this collective has spread to a youth (not only urban) eager for novelty and emancipatory originality. How did this happen? It is difficult to analyse all the historical, social, cultural and societal components, but the reasons for such a success, even though it became almost a social phenomenon afterwards, can perhaps be partly explained by the power and singularity of their industrial, striking and repetitive melodies. First of all, perhaps because by having privileged music over musicians, they opened new fields of experimentation... Succeeding where they were not expected, they managed to seduce an audience that made their innovative style a must in the electronic movement, opening the way for many artists after them. What's more, they will have contributed to create and broaden, through the mixing of musical and artistic exchanges, a nascent neo-community revealed by the "musical connivance" favouring links between individuals, groups of individuals, pre-existing communities, peoples, countries, continents... In short, in all likelihood, the artists from the Detroit collective have symbolized and favoured, directly and indirectly, the values of freedom and unity by creating bridges and connections to the contacts of others... Moreover, for many, the UR label remains a reference over time, partly due to the irreducible "Mad" Mike Banks and his legendary "inflexibility" (LOL) as a sign of a saving independence, a sine qua non for a "sensible", coherent and respectful artistic approach to an ethical guideline. The turn taken by the "techno event" leaves one perplexed as to the latter...

On the other side of the Atlantic, the places and contexts were in many ways quite different, but in the end they were not so different! The reunified Germany, Tatcher’s England, the industrial basins on both sides of the Atlantic were real artistic breeding grounds, the climate of freedom and at the same time the fears of an uncertain future, and so many other factors allowed the birth of a new genre, a style of electronic music that only the new technologies, still in their infancy at the time, could generate. A mix of synthesizers, sequencers, samplers, drum and effect boxes, mixing desks and turntables to broadcast productions pressed "artisanally" on vinyl supports by disc jockeys who became the new "masters of ceremonies" of (secular) communions taking place in real dedicated "temples"! To sum up, these are the tools used by this collective of artists who became famous both under the two letters of the group (UR) and in their own names when they became "autonomous / emancipated..."

Inspired by libertarian, protestant, non-conformist and even rebellious values, the "underground" current persists through those who put it into practice as much as through those who claim it. That being said, it should not be denied that the slogan has also become a marketing asset that the events sector has quickly taken advantage of. For, if the European context prior to the 2000s welcomed Detroit's music with open arms, over the last twenty years its evolution has also contributed to distilling, diluting, even attenuating the critical and "claiming" spirit of a movement that has gradually become a real fashion effect, a product with high added value. And it is probably from there that everything "got a bit carried away..." A certain "confusion" of genres, the explosion of the phenomenon of rave parties in places as unusual as they are eclectic, the defiance of the forbidden, the practice known as the "club marathon" in Germany, England, Belgium, Holland... The free circulation of the single European market has led to an explosion in the sale and consumption of narcotics of all kinds, while at the same time defining the borders of a new economic world, new societal rules, new modus vivendi. Since then, the organization of festive events has been subject to ever more rules and controls, and the framing and standardization of practices has led to the deployment of a party industry that has also been "labelled"... The cult of the person alongside the growing cult of the new "idols" of the night world, the cachet pocketed for performances that only the weight of the "flying cases" that the DJs of the time had to lug around could partly justify, the perpetual navel-gazing and staging, the lack of funds, the gentrification of the milieu and its "adherents" capable of affording themselves the most prized festivals... (LOL) In short, an evolution of morals, of society, of the world... Well, that's what we like to hear ourselves say.

So that's the question I take the liberty of asking here in these terms!

"Where have the heirs gone?" Where are the worthy "descendants" of these pioneers of a new musical genre so particular that it could even claim to convey a certain emancipatory ideology. Of course, no one has a monopoly on the supposedly "underground" spirit or attitude! Who can also claim to be the bearer or to define its values with relevance? Is not claiming affiliation already distancing oneself from it? The catchy slogan by becoming contrary to the meaning we want to make it carry. However, it should also be recognized that the European context will probably have contributed to assuaging, pacifying and softening the militant and political demands of the original movement. Would the depositaries of this "resistant" state of mind then have literally melted into the mass? Not because the slogans freedom, tolerance, respect, mixity are no longer popular, nor have they lost their meaning, but because the initial state of mind would have been diluted in a somewhat watered-down version of the development of a music emerging from an American context in a city like Detroit, which still today has the difficulty of keeping its head above a "stagnant, polluted water..." Damn disparities! The craze generated by the meteoric rise of an electronic sound that has become the standard bearer of festive entertainment should not obscure the foundations of a musical movement that has its roots in the depths of inter-ethnic conflicts, social disparities and injustices, the perverse effects of industrialization, globalization, modern slavery, profit despite respect for life and the living... In short, the lively sound cadenced by powerful bass should hardly evade the context, the "vapours", the ambiences in which this form of artistic and musical engagement is expressed, extended and exploited. This is perhaps the first thing to remember!

The artisans of the movement are those who make it up. Those who define the contours of the movement through their attitudes, behaviour, way of thinking, way of looking at life, others, fun, leisure, work, respect, tolerance, etc., are the very people who are the architects of the movement. In other words, it is the individuals and the human values they convey that make the movement. It is thus quite naturally that those for whom music is a means of expression, it is natural that they should reflect on the past, present and future of the electronic scene, their "art", its practice and the meaning to be given to it.

Generally speaking, like other musical currents and the cultural revolutions they have generated, electronic music and its so-called "techno" declination are necessarily apprehended through an overall, integral vision! Like the eagle or any other bird of prey that scans the landscape, perched high up in order to better fly over all the components of its environment, we must systematically take a little height in order to better observe, better analyze, better understand, better do. This is true in very many aspects of life, if not all of them... However, through the question asked with a small dose of irony, at least as a wink, of the "heirs" is, asked in watermarks, the question of the motivations that animate the artists in their expressive approaches. Art with a small or a big "A", little differs in the end. Making "art" (with modesty) does not require that the so-called "artist" be "big or small", meaning "recognized" or "unknown". "Pretending to make art, in this case "musical" art, also means asking oneself the question of motivation, of what profoundly animates, stimulates, of the meaning and coherence of the approach, of the approach, of the capacity to question, of lucidity, of ethics...

That, too, in my humble personal analysis, is what "underground" affiliation refers to... To embody with conscience and coherence an artistic approach as a humanistic commitment! Like the UR collective, the common point undoubtedly resides in the existential questionings carried by emancipatory libertarian values. For, to claim one's belonging to the "underground" universe, if it means something well defined, is not to usurp the precepts of a movement that contains much more than what one can make the slogan say...

Respect to the collective!

Respect to the artists!

nms303