Jeff Mills Is Still the Man From Tomorrow

Jeff Mills is known to generations of ravers for the techno anthem “The Bells.” But the Detroit DJ/producer is a cultural auteur—his ’90s minimal explorations widely emulated in the techno scene, even as he’s expanded into visual art, film and fashion. Indeed, in 2024, this futurist is redefining the avant-garde. Significantly, Mills’ career has been reappraised amid the Black Lives Matter movement, with commentators observing how today’s EDM is dominated by white male stalwarts.

Mills, who played drums in childhood, started as a turntablist called The Wizard in the Motor City—his ’80s mythology in the historically Black industrial city so enduring that Eminem paid homage to him in 2013’s “Groundhog Day,” rapping, “If you ain’t listened to The Wizard, you ain’t have a fuckin’ clue what you was missing.”

Curious about electronic music, including European synth-pop, Mills initiated an industrial group, Final Cut, before founding the techno collective Underground Resistance (UR) with Mike Banks. In the ’90s Mills went solo—becoming renowned in cities like Berlin as a DJ, harnessing three decks and Roland TR-909 drum machine to advance an exhilaratingly frenetic mix style.

Post-UR, Mills determined to stay independent, establishing Axis Records in 1992. He and another UR alumni, Robert Hood, would introduce a new minimal techno—influencing disparate electronic producers, among them James Blake.

Mid-decade, Mills aired a landmark mix, Live At The Liquid Room—Tokyo, opening with his cinematic opus “Utopia” but also entailing a prototype of “The Bells.” Alas, it’s not on streaming platforms.

In the 2000s Mills’ output became ever more conceptual—the longtime science fiction buff contemplating the nexus between human and machine, time, space, futurism and possibility. Now a multidisciplinary artist, he’s ventured into film (twice scoring Fritz Lang’s 1927 sci-fi silent classic Metropolis, over two decades) and joined orchestras (in 2005 recording “Blue Potential” with the Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra).

Lately, Jeff Mills has been especially visible in fashion. He stunned techno fans with a dual drum machine performance at Virgil Abloh’s final Off-White collection, Spaceship Earth: An Imaginary Experience, during Paris Fashion Week in 2022 (attending were Rihanna and A$AP Rocky with Chicago house DJ and model Honey Dijon).

Then Mills was the face of Jil Sander’s Fall/Winter 2023 campaign, the German luxury fashion house aptly associated with minimalist aesthetics.