Jeff Mills continues the Every Dog Has Its Day series under his Millsart moniker with his second edition of 2020. Vol. 6 is a double LP set with nine tracks. Every track has a story behind. This collection of Electronic Music by Jeff Mills is uniquely crafted to ease restlessness, soothe impatience and at the same time build high life expectations while opening the passages to a better understanding of what you are searching for.
This New Year, Jeff Mills is inviting us to look inward in the form of his Every Dog Has Its Day series. The last time we had an installment came 17 years ago, just enough time for a periodical cicada to emerge from theground, finished with its former life as a nymph. The sixth edition of this series is soon to follow in spring dressed in brown, continuing to deliver a spiritual and emotional raft for you to see that Every Dog Has Its Day. Mills himself has said, “You never figure out life, you just get used to it.” Reflected in this record is that sentiment, that life doesn’t present to you the answers because there are none. What is right and just for you, may not be for me, so how can I share with you any secrets. Electronic music can act as a guide, a catalyst of your headspace; it is not the map.
The sixth segment in Jeff Mills´ retrospective series „The Directors Cut” is dedicated to his anthem The Bells. First released as part of the Kat Moda PM002 EP on the Purpose Maker label in 1997, the original track is remastered and available now again. Available on vinyl for the very first time is the orchestra version of The Bells, taken from The Blue Potential (Originally released on CD and DVD). The premiere of Jeff Mills performing his works with an orchestra was celebrated in 2005 in France. For his open-air concert with the Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra, at the historic Pont Du Gard in Montpellier, Jeff Mills´works were transcribed in notes for the individual instruments of the orchestra for the first time. This version of The Bells captures an unforgettable live moment where electronic music met classical in an unprecedented way. History revisited, but Mills leads back to present & future as well; the previously unreleased The Homosapiens Sapiens is a Sci-Fi affair, created especially for this chapter of „Directors Cut.”
For those who dig Jeff Mills but don’t have the time or money to hoard records from his extensive back catalogue, the ongoing “Director’s Cut” series showcasing hard-to-find gems from his discography is a godsend. Volume five begins with a trip back to 2015 and “Solar Cycles” – an alien-sounding, otherworldly mid-tempo techno loop jam – from the limited edition, USB-only “Proxima Centauri” album. Side B begins with the bleeping tribal techno hustle of “L8” from 1998’s “Skin Deep EP”, before Mills offers us a chance to drift through space via 2006 track “Above Waiting Worlds”, which is one of his most intergalactic and cinematic dancefloor cuts to date (and that’s saying something).
His knowledge of electronic music is unrivaled, yet it’s his understanding of how we’ve barely scratched the surface of techno that separates him. The genre, in essence, has no boundaries, so why should we apply them, why can’t we foresee a future in which electronic music is tapping into technology and human psyche that we never thought possible? Why can’t it be a vessel that transports a viewer to a character in a film, or a link through time? A look back can often pave the way to the future, one in which we can see and hear beyond the final frontier.
Interview and text by Lee Shields
The fourth chapter from Axis Records’ The Director’s Cut re-issue project gathers together various versions of killer cuts previously produced and released by the Motor City legend over the past two decades. Highlights include deep space techno workout “Deadly Rays (Of A Hot White Sun)”, the densely layered African percussion, low slung bass and echoing organ stabs of “Gateway Of Zen (Percussion Mix)”, the bleep-heavy electro/techno fusion of sweaty workout “999” and the alien-sounding, minor-key hypnotism of “The Industry Of Dreams”. Each track is accompanied by a separate “audio commentary” from the man himself, which is ideal for those who love to hear artists talking about their work.
”Commemorating 50th Anniversary of the Moon landing (July 20 2019) Axis Records is pleased to announce the release of the album by Jeff Mills on his interpretations of Earth’s Moon. ”There are influences of the Moon we can detect, measure and document as scientific facts. If these are perceived as rational explanations, then it should raise questions about the possibility of other unseen mental and metaphysical connections humans have, not just with the Moon but with all other celestial bodies in and outside this Solar System. On the flipside, as we recognize that our Sun gives us light and a lifespan, what does an even greater force in the Cosmos, perhaps the darkness [or absence of anything] affects us. If we look at the Moon as a component in a vast configuration of integral connected parts, then an intuitive sense might lead us to a wider understanding about how deeply our relationship lies. This album and the imagination that helped to produce it should be considered as a proposition with open-endedness and no foreseeable conclusion. It is a chemistry of facts and feelings based on then, now and forever”. Jeff Mills”
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