Jeff Mills and “Mad” Mike Banks, otherwise known as Underground Resistance are 2020-2022 Jane Lombard Fellows, nominated by Salome Asega for their project Submerge, for the Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice Prize and is part of the Vera List Center’s As for Protocols cycle of programs.

Submerge is a subterranean brick and mortar space that is part techno music history museum, part record store, and part site for workshops and classes. It pays homage to the rich history of Detroit techno, a specific genre of electronic dance music produced in the Motor City in the 1980s and 1990s. The space showcases musical equipment on which iconic sets were recorded and an extensive collection of electronic music. Collectors travel from around the world to visit the record store for rare cuts from Detroit’s most well-known and obscure techno artists.

Jeff Mills and “Mad” Mike Banks were key figures in the Detroit techno scene starting its early days. They formedUnderground Resistance, a techno music collective and label, in the late 1980s. Their work has always had a socially conscious message and “a militant, mysterious aesthetic” defined by the bandanas members wear while performing. Submerge and Underground Resistance are considered among the most significant electronic music institutions worldwide.

“UR made Techno a sound for radical imagination by and for Black people—music for a movement…The music and mythology serve to vision a world with protocols that are more equitable, celebratory, and just.”
Salome Asega, Jane Lombard Prize Council