The second chapter from Axis Records’ The Director’s Cut re-issue project. Jeff Mills goes back into the Axis archive to release special unreleased versions as well as iconic tracks that made the label what it is today.
axis records
Jeff Mills – The Director´s Cut Chapter 1 [AX078DC]
”Looking back in hindsight to the activity and accomplishments of Axis is with much pride – to witness the relationship between the music and listener evolving to this point. The Director’s Cut reissue project is about manicuring detail. It’s about a rare opportunity to enhance what we’ve done so that the relationship strengthens for the long term” – Jeff Mills
Jeff Mills – Str Mrkd [AX077]
The first release of a new Axis sub-label by Jeff Mills entitled ‘Star Marked’ with 4 tracks of Jeff Mills trademark techno tracks.
20 Albums from 2018
With just a few days from the current year left, I’ve compiled a list of 20 albums from 2018 that I enjoyed this year. Among these I have to highlight the much anticipated Mutant Beat Dance debut album, the first ever album from Gerard Hanson under the E.R.P. project, a new Gerald Donald project and a compilation of unreleased Heinrich Mueller remixes, a Silent Servant follow-up on Hospital Productions, a very interesting Fred Ventura compilation of unreleased house tracks, a new Lebanon Hanover, the beautiful debut album of Curses, the impressive Eindkrak album and the debut album of the Romanian producer Șerb.
The list is compiled in chronological order.
Eindkrak – Brullend Staal [Unknown Precept]
Spiral Deluxe – Voodoo Magic [AX076]
As Electronic Music knows no creative boundaries, Spiral Deluxe is clearly a profound and convincing example of what is possible in the times we live in today. Traditionally, they would be considered a musical quartet. Each of the 4 members contributing to make a special joint effort – the meeting of minds from different spectrums of the musical sphere, but if you move in closer to examine how each have modified the way they communicate in order to play with each other, its astonishing because it shows a entirely new platform on how collaborating can be from now on. A longtime vision of their drummer/percussionist and Jeff Mills – yes, that Jeff Mills! Before becoming the world renown and groundbreaking DJ, producer and artist he is recognized for, he was a drummer in his youth, which carried on up until he began DJing in the late 1970s. Since then, he had always carried idea to get back to his musical roots. This longtime dream began to surface a few years ago when Mills was bestowed a “white card” residency at the Museum du Le Louvre in Paris. It was there that he found the opportunity to form a band for one night and it opened the doors to a chance to materialize his dream. Since then, the formation has carefully evolved into one might describe as a “super band” – a group of highly skilled musicians, working together to reach a higher level of creativity. For example, although members are using electronic instruments, there is no MIDI syncing connection. Each plays their instrument un-attached as if any Jazz or Rock band would play together. Each having a vast amount of experience in live and studio projects, this release displays their wealth of skill and musical knowledge that comes from Jazz, Funk, Pop, Gospel, Detroit Techno and all forms of House Music. Yumiko Ohno – Keyboard, Gerald Mitchell – Keyboard, Kenji “Jino” Hino – Bass Guitar, Jeff Mills – Drums and Percussion.
Jeff Mills – Lost In Space – Classical Debut (Toulouse)
We are heading to Toulouse this weekend to catch the last representation of Jeff Mills’ new conceptual electronic-classical project, ‘Lost In Space‘, which is a collaboration with Orchestre National Du Capitole De Toulouse.
Jeff Mills in cooperation with Orchestre du Capitole present Lost In Space
Continue reading “Jeff Mills – Lost In Space – Classical Debut (Toulouse)”
Jeff Mills – And Then There Was Light (Soundtrack) [AXCD052]
Last year, Jeff Mills provided the soundtrack for a curious Japanese film by Tatsushi Omori called And Then There Was Light. The movie was based on a novel called Hikari, which focuses on a teenager who kills his girlfriend’s other lover while mistaking their affair for sexual assault. The dark tone of both novel and film naturally shines through in Mills’ refreshingly electronic score, which flits between moments of quietly spacey ambience, creepy intensity, Reichian minimalism (see “Danger From Abroad”), icy soundscapes, industrial strength intensity (the panicked “The Players of Consequence” and “Lost Winners”) and, on the “Hikari Mix” of “The Hypnotists”, full-throttle Detroit techno with Giallo overtones.
2017 Top 3 – Readers List
#VăVedemDinSibiu
It has been 4 years since I made the last ‘review of the year …’ or ‘best of … ‘ list and it was not planned for 2017, but looking back at last year somehow the music scene shifted in a good way. From the music point of view, I think we are living better times now, we can see a revival of the old school electro and acid house, afrobeat is still hot, EBM is going strong.
Jeff Mills – Lost In Space [AX075]
The five-track EP will be the first material from Mills’s latest electronic-classical project, Lost In Space, which is a collaboration with Orchestre National Du Capitole De Toulouse. Following the 12-inch, Mills will release a Lost In Space album at some point in 2018 and perform live alongside the orchestra on April 5th and 7th in Toulouse. “Lost In Space” is an exotic music excursion into the unknown – discovering the sectors of Outer Space and encountering unexpected occurrences which is to be the objective, narrative and attraction. Like the architecture and habitation structure of a jungle, life exist and persist everywhere, but only by the degree of our 5 basic human senses.
Spiral Deluxe – Tathata [AX074]
Spiral Deluxe is a band led by Jeff Mills. Initially formed for the performances in Japan (Tokyo/Kobe) and released “Kobe Sessions” EP (AX070) last year, they gathered again in October 2016 for European tour, when they named themselves as Spiral Deluxe. This record is live recordings from that tour and will be our 2nd series of “Axis Audiophile Series” with HD sound.
Jeff Mills – A Trip To The Moon [AXCD049]
The album is newly recorded sound track of the “A Trip To The Moon” film by Georges Melies in 1902. The Lobster Films in France has released a DVD of the same film with Jeff Mills’ sound tracks in November 2016. The famous silent film is only for 16 minutes or so but Mills has finished the entire tracks for this sound track album.
‘When Georges Méliès created Trip To The Moon in 1902, the world was just beginning to feel the tightening, yet exciting effects of another giant leap in modern civilization with the Industrial Age. It was a place in time that was transformable and in all dimensions of an evolutionary process: social, economic and political revolutions were buzzing. As man worked hard under the Sun, exposing his efforts and determination, it was the Moon that hatched his dreams. It was a time of realization and a time of romance’. – Jeff Mills
Jeff Mills – The Kill Zone [AX072]
The Kill Zone EP by Jeff Mills. Taken from the recent Free Fall Galaxy album. The 12″ contains two previously unreleased tracks.
Jeff Mills – Free Fall Galaxy [AX048]
A dark space in time absorbs whatever is on its way; without a sign of sensitivity nor compassion and on behalf of its own continuity, the Free Fall Galaxy is a threat to all which it surrounds. Beyond our ability as humans to distinguish or analyse galaxies, the Free Fall Galaxy does not retain any kind of order in its nature. Devouring and moving in unexpected orbits, all that is known is that it endlessly consumes without becoming larger in mass nor in size. Other than that, everything is yet to be discovered. We must conjecture that this Galaxy holds many keys to unsolved speculations regarding space, time and our own existence.
Jeff Mills – The Domino Effect EP [AX071]
The first installment of 12inch EP from Jeff Mills’ new solo LP, Free Fall Galaxy, the ninth chapter of his ”science-fiction story” Sleeper Wakes, and first since 2014’s Emerging Crystal Universe.
Jeff Mills – Exhibitionist 2: Part 3 [AX069]
The third EP of the Exhibitionist 2 EP series is here. The recordings are taken from Jeff Mills‘ live performance in Leiden, Netherlands on 21st February 2015 and bring the EP series to a close after two first EPs which focused on the studio mix part of the follow up to his groundbreaking 2004 film Exhibitionist.
Jeff Mills – Exhibisionist 2 [AXDV004]
11 years after the release of Exhibitionist, Jeff Mills reveals the follow-up to his innovative film with Exhibitionist 2. Exhibitionist 2 explores DJing as an art form and gives us a peak into how a DJ makes use of current technological means to create seamless mixes and complex transitions to levels that were thought impossible not long ago. In this second volume, Jeff Mills goes deeper and not only shows how he approaches the mixing process but also how he thinks in real time, spontaneously creating, just like a musician playing an acoustic instrument or a soloist thinking of rhythms on-the-fly. The ambitious project captures the DJ over the course of multiple sequences, with closeup and multi-angle shots that allow us to see exactly what a DJ does and how music is programmed and played for the purpose of dancing.
Jeff Mills – Exhibitionist 2 – Part 2 [AX068]
The second installment of 12” EP from “Exhibitionist 2” DVD+CD. All the tracks are created by Jeff Mills during the session in the Studio Mix in the DVD, where the audience can see and learn how Jeff Mills produces tracks.
Jeff Mills – Exhibitionist 2 (Part 1) [AX067]
The first installment of 12″ EP from “Exhibitionist 2” DVD+CD due out in September 2015. In Jeff’s words: “Expanding the art forms in Dance Music has always been an agenda that needs constant monitoring because it has the ability to evolve and develop each and every idea. At angles that are not easy to see or understanding for most of the listening and dancing audiences, I’ve always felt that Dance music would make more sense to the people if they were allowed chances to understand how the music is being programmed and made – to witness this process from beginning.”
Jeff Mills & Mikhail Rudy – When Time Splits [AXCD047]
Jeff Mills has always tried to do things differently, but few could have foreseen his collaboration with classical pianist Mikhail Rudy. Back in February, the two men joined forces to write, and subsequently perform, a soundtrack for Henri-Georges Clouzot’s unfinished 1964 film L’Enfer. When Time Splits is a recording of that performance, with Rudy providing evocative piano motifs and thoughtful solos, accompanied by typically spacey, sci-fi inspired electronics from the Detroit maestro. At times it’s willfully discordant, at others immensely beautiful. Throughout, it remains a fascinating study in combining the worlds of modern classical, jazz, ambient and experimental electronics.
Jeff Mills – Woman In The Moon [AXCD046]
Woman In The Moon is a science fiction silent film that premiered on 15 October 1929. It is often considered to be one of the first ‘serious’ science fiction films, written and directed by Fritz Lang, who is the one of the biggest names in German expressionist cinema, the creator of Metropolis (1927). Detroit Techno music producer and a futurist Jeff Mills composed the new sound track for this classic film, initially for the Fritz Lang Film Retrospective event for Cinematheque Francaise in Paris in 2011. Since then, Mills has been consistently performing the soundtrack in the form of a cine-mix.
The Hipodrome Of Music 