Finally, after all those years of being a huge fan of Underground
Resistance I got a chance to see them live, in Antwerp of all places.
As Timeline (a smaller version of the band, personnel-wise) they played
at a Movement 2004 afterparty, but in Belgium it was the full-blown
Galaxy 2 Galaxy/Los Hermanos outfit: 3 guys playing keyboards
(including Mike Banks and Gerald Mitchell), the Tek Brothers on
percussion, Santiago on the decks, and a bass player. During the encore
they were joined by a local saxaphone player for High-Tech Jazz.
Most techno acts usually don’t play longer than 45 minutes to an hour,
but as Galaxy 2 Galaxy isn’t your average techno act but a sweaty live
band they played for over an hour and a half, doing some of the many
classics from the rich history of the Underground Resistance and Los
Hermanos labels: Return of the Dragons, Final Frontier (featuring
Kraftwerk’s Numbers!!), Inspiration, Transition, First Galactic Baptist
Church, Soul Saver, In Deeper Presence, Timeline, My Mother’s Guitarra,
Aguila, Jupiter Jazz, High-Tech Jazz, Jaguar (dedicated to Rolando) and
perhaps one or two more. An amazing melting pot of techno, latin, soul,
funk, gospel and jazz.
The crowd needed to warm up a bit, but besides the obvious skills of
the musicians (these are no button pushers!) Gerald Mitchell really got
the crowd going in a typical Detroit style. During First Galactic
Baptist Church and Sould Saver he also got some help from Paris The
Black Foo on vocals.
This gig really was all i ever hoped for from Underground Resistance
live, amazingly funky versions of those already amazing tracks. Even a
classic like Jaguar was even better than the original version on
record, i loved the salsa piano parts they included. There is still
room for a little improvement - the pauses between the tracks were a
bit too long and during Jupiter Jazz there was a sequence out of sync.
These are minor quibbles though, this is still one of the best gigs
i’ve ever been too. This band might even take UR to their next stage
with Submerge already becoming a stronger force after years in the
business.
BTW, has this Los Hermanos album on Submerge Japan already been
mentioned on the list:
http://www.discogs.com/release/398509
I really hope this CD and the Galaxy 2 Galaxy one will become available
at Submerge soon!
Cheers,
Hans
--
Hans Veneman
http://technotourist.org
http://vlokfeest.net
