S & D :. underground resistance

should be out on news-stands within 2 weeks. anyway, it is called Big Shot Magazine (you can buy it online at bigshotmag.com, or if you happen to be in NYC, i know that Kim's, Turntable Lab and Halcyon usually carry new issues).

my article is more an introduction to the group for those uninitiated, and then a long-ass interview with Nomadico (aka DJ Dex), who is really one of the sickest DJs i've ever seen. the interview is where the good shit is.

anyway, yeah.

UR on the cover of the Wire is a nice turnaround for that magazine.

what is unfortunate is that the rest of the magazine is still kinda meh. the UR feature is pretty well-written, tho.

oh, also, i'm just going to post the interview part of my article here right now. enjoy.

Today, UR is on its seventy-second release, with a back catalogue running the gamut along genres, including electro-funk, techno, and what UR has termed 'hi-tech jazz.' Among the newer arrivals at UR headquarters is Nomadico (aka DJ Dex), an LA transplant whose skills on the decks are unparalleled and whose productions range from breakbeats to hard techno. Big Shot correspondant Thomas Rees caught up with Nomadico at two recent sets in New York City, and a few weeks later, the following conversation took place via e-mail.

BIG SHOT: First off, how did you get into DJing and producing, and how did you eventually come to be a member of the UR crew?

NOMADICO: I got into DJing from an interest in recording audio growing up as a kid in Los Angeles. I was about 11 or 12 years old when I got my first tape recorder, and my interest in recording sounds started from there. I remember being really excited about being able to capture songs from the radio, recording conversations and also taking apart the tape recorder to understand how it worked.

In high school I joined a DJ crew with some horrible name... I think we were called "High Fidelity" or something corny like that. We did birthday parties, wedding receptions, high school dances, and of course our own backyard house parties. I got into collecting and studying all types of music from the hip-hop, house and techno records I bought for DJing. I also listened to jazz, classical, and rock. I worked at a record store for 3 or 4 years while in college.

I first heard Detroit hits like "Clear", "Technicolor", "Good Life" and "Big Fun" on 1580 KDAY in L.A. The KDAY Mixmasters were like Detroit's MOJO or The Wizard.

As I got older I was aware of the second and third generation of Detroit producers. By the time I was in my early 20s I was collecting UR, Planet-E, M-Plant, KMS and so on. I was also part of what seemed like only a handful of people in L.A. that really knew anything about Detroit Techno. Another guy was Santiago Salazar (aka DJ S2, a UR member). Santiago had been ordering directly from Submerge Records for a few years by the time I met him. Santiago had talked to Mad Mike and stayed in touch with him after looking out for some Detroiters who were visiting L.A.

About a year after getting my university degree, Santiago told me he was moving to Detroit to help Submerge start up at a new building they had bought in Detroit and wondered if I was interested in going as well.

By this time I'd had several internships and jobs at record labels, music magazines and radio stations. I knew enough about the mainstream music business to know that it wasn't for me. After these experiences, the opportunity to work for an inner city business with musicians I respected was the right move for me. So, in early 2002 I packed up and left L.A. and went to Detroit to work at Submerge and enrolled in UR techno theory 101 instructed by Mad Mike.

BIG SHOT: You do a lot of work in various sub-genres of electronic music. How do you feel about the stratification that sometimes happens along genre lines, like a techno head dismissing all d'nb, or the opposite? Do you feel like one of your goals is to open listeners' ears a bit?

NOMADICO: Music serves a different purpose for everybody, so if they choose to fixate on one genre over another that is their choice. I've always found more inspiration in listening to all types of music. As a DJ, I love mixing up various genres, but when I'm producing, I usually think in terms of song structure and tempo, not genres. If its gets classified as electro, detroit techno or technohophouse - it really doesn't matter to me.

BIG SHOT: Techno, as a music, certainly plays a huge role in contemporary music history, but at times, it seems like its roots in the black community aren't recognized enough. How do you feel about this?

NOMADICO: That is a difficult situation for the originators and it is important to correct within the realm of academic music history. Fortunately, some of these guys are still around and making a point to let people know what's up. Juan Atkins is now touring with Model 500 and working on new music. Derrick May is out promoting his "High Tech Soul" vision of Techno. Larry Heard still drops a record or two a year that lets everybody know he's the man.

It has always been easy for anyone to point fingers and say the American mainstream music business is biased towards minorities that don't want to be thugs or spend 40 hours a week in the gym so that someone else can produce the music. That's all true, but I don't believe artists should wait for big business to catch on to what we are doing. I mean look at them now. The majors are pissing their pants now because a little mp3 file has corrupted their operating system. They made a fatal error by thinking it wasn't a threat 10 years ago. They can keep trying to figure that out.

As an independent artist in 2007, I'm concerned with producing for existing supporters who are already on the cutting edge and growing from there. That is actually what really interested me about UR to begin with. In 20 years UR has established a swarm of intelligent supporters that look beyond archaic stereotypes. We've known this for years, so there isn't this ridiculous detachment between celebrity artist and the unknown fan.

The irony in all of this is that technology is on our side. Anyone interested can read about Web 2.0 and longtail theory and they'll understand what I'm talking about.

BIG SHOT: Do you feel like there's been an upswing in interest in techno in the past couple of years? Obviously all such things comes in waves, but where do you see/hear techno in a few years? What about UR?

NOMADICO: Yeah, there is definitely an upswing and it is naturally part of another wave.

At the moment the business is in utter chaos, everyone is excited and scared of technology at the same time. This idea of a "finished track" is disappearing for a lot of people.

In 10 years DJs won't buy tracks anymore, they'll belong to virtual communities that exchange music based on stylistic preferences.
An artist's economic value won't be tied to individual songs anymore, but rather the ability to consistently satisfy the listener's limitless demand for music that is simultaneously new yet familiar.

BIG SHOT: Any new projects for you and UR coming up?

NOMADICO: My Nomadico EP was just released on UR this summer. I have a remix for New York's NuBlu Orchestra that will be released in November 2007. I just moved apartments and need to get my studio back in working order!! As for UR, it's a moving target-- only Mad Mike knows what is next.

i had some space constraints so i had to edit parts of the interview out, but...

if you don't know Dex's work, his records on UR are very very ill.

is it really only 72?

In 10 years DJs won't buy tracks anymore, they'll belong to virtual communities that exchange music based on stylistic preferences. An artist's economic value won't be tied to individual songs anymore, but rather the ability to consistently satisfy the listener's limitless demand for music that is simultaneously new yet familiar.

What does this mean?? arrgh so tantalizing

as of when the article was written, yep. they just came out with a string of new releases.

like the new skurge record, which is also quite ill. very in sync with his djing style, too.

so, i've been thinking about UR a lot recently, and i think that one of the more major developments is that their newer talent/crew members are repping the group just as much as the older heads, putting out great records and spinning masterfully. not to rep my interview too much, but S2, Skurge and particularly Dex are tearing it up like the best of the UR heads. the 'invisible showcase' mix that Dex put out is evidence of this.

anyway, i was talking about it with one of the dudes at halcyon, and i thought it kind of an interesting shift in the UR catalog/culture.

Nomadico is from LA? I wansn't going up there that often in 2002 but I was paying attention to what was going on and I don't remember seeing him on lineups that much. I'll be bummed if he was playing all the time and I missed it. S2 (santiago salazar) has moved back here, though, so I get to see him often now. A great dude and producer.

where's the love for Electronic Warfare 2.0 - The Other Side Of Bling? http://www.discogs.com/release/1003881

Just discovered "Timeline" like a week ago, thanks to this clip of certainly impressive dancing to Timeline sped up to 170 or so BPM.

Wonderful track.

so great

theres no UR compilation you can buy is there?

what are you talking about, there are plenty

take your pick

i highly recommend "depth charge 1", "noctorbulous behavior - the mix" and "a hi tech jazz compilation"

oh and the "aztec mystic mix"

anything mixed by Dex is the bizness, he is fucking awesome.

Or track down the amaaaaaaazing mix The Black Dog did for Resident Advisor that's completely UR. Best RA mix I've ever heard.

that one's free!

i am gonna rep again for the virtually free in any record store THE HOSTILE AMUSH 12", because really, "Ambush" is just one of the deepest techno tracks of all time.

The new WPA record is hot.

ATTN: UR fanatics, can you help me ID a UR song? It's on the all-UR Black Dog RA podcast, at around 18:44 between "In or Out" and "Death Of My Neighborhood", there's some sort of beepy ringing sound going on that sounds reminiscent of a telephone, and I can't figure out if it's a bit from another song or if it's just some weird sound Black Dog added themselves. I'm pretty certain the song in question isn't "Maroon" like all the tracklists say

weird that i'm answering this now, stevie, but could that be Dopplereffekt?

anyway, interviewed Rolando (aka the Aztec Mystic) today. he was very nice, though a bit reluctant to talk about the old times (he's no longer associated with UR or Submerge).

and again that Nocturbulous Behaviour mix-cd by Suburban Knight is excellent, collects a lot of U.R. classics in one mix.

raining acid at my place right about now

Is it worth dropping a whole bunch of money on the galaxy 2 galaxy double cd compilation (I already have the repressed world to world and galaxy 2 galaxy 12" inches for what it's worth)? This is a weird case of seeing it on sale, priced appropriately, but in a country where cds are v. expensive all across the board.

no, not really worth it if you have the 12s

fwiw it's probably my UR "desert island disc" and i listen to it more than any of the other UR CDs i have

Not sure if this was talked about elsewhere, but Violet w/Nancy Whang, Coco Solid, A.M.O.R. & Nightwave recorded a multilingual cover of "Transition" for International Women's Day:
https://soundcloud.com/violet/transition-ft-amor-nightwave-nancy-whang-mamacita-coco-solid-underground-resistance-cover

very cool

Nice idea, so so execution.

agreed. i think it would have been more interesting if it diverged more from the original.

i mean, the original is awesome, and the cover is a really great track too, but i would have liked to hear a fresher spin on it

The photo of Andre Holland at Discogs is rather surprising.

Just been listened to the Laurent Garnier disc from the Kings of Techno 2-CD (with Carl Craig on disc 2) from a few years back.

It ends with a glorious live version of Amazon that opens with a Mike Banks shout-out to various UR friends and affiliates over crowd whoops and some nice slowed-down spacey chords from the track.

Given that the rest of the disc has Garnier dropping in news reports, interviews, other speech sample etc I'm assuming that this "live version" is something he's put together to round the mix out - when the tune properly drops it doesn't sound very live or that different to the studio version. But it's great, and I have to say I'm intrigued - does anyone know anything else about this version and where its constituent parts might come from?

I have been playing the shit out of the Galaxy 2 Galaxy: High Tech Jazz compilation lately. I've scoured this thread and have a pretty good sense of the early UR cannon (like 1990-1998), but what's their best work after that? I think my all-time fav UR track is "Transition" which is from 2002 and makes me think there must be so much good later stuff too

I also want to know the answer to this question

I also do not know the answer to this question. The first Los Hermanos album is the most recent related thing I'm really aware of. submerge.com has been mothballed / in redevelopment for years now.

On the G2G album is that Mike Banks shredding on Momma's Basement (the original, not the very different 12" Mix that's on the European edition)?

Not sure there is that much post 1998. Obviously Rolando's Jaguar, Los Hermanos Quetzal and Birth of 3000. Inspiration - the b side to Transition - was great too.

Oh and Santiago Salazar, who was one half of Los Hermanos with Rolando. His Chicanisimo album from 2015 was pretty good iirc

Just remembered Timeline of Millenium To Millenium, that was decent too

All of the stuff from Aquanauts and Nomadico is also really essential. This one came up a lot for me during the early period of Covid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQf5N3dhoa8

Hi-Tech Dreams is also good, anything by Skurge or Jon Collins is good, and the Electronic Warfare 2.0 has some decent stuff, in particular this excellent track by Marc Floyd under his Von Floyd alias.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyCENXBQhfM&t=94s

That Aquanauts track is sick

It is! For a while I would put it on while watching this great vid of cruiseships in heavy storms at sea, and it really did the trick.

Tbh I think there's a lot of great stuff after 98 or 99, it's just that it hasn't been high profile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPlRBcYC45Q

I'd be v happy to be proved wrong and that's not a bad start