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Underground Resistance - Panic (Riot EP, Underground Resistance, 1991)
Can techno be subversive? UR’s “Mad” Mike Banks explains in this interview in Jockey Slut (1994):
My techno is. I can’t speak for anybody else’s, but mine is designed to be subversive and mind awakening. There are definite messages there through tonal communication and you can’t assess it — that’s why techno is deadlier than rap. With rap you have to vocally communicate your point but with techno you don’t.
I’m a big fan of Public Enemy — to me “Prophets of Rage” and “Burn Hollywood” were all warning signs of what was going to happen. And the “Riot EP” was too. “Riot” is a warning sign of what can happen when people try to dominate other people. The more you oppress someone the harder you make them — it’s like making a diamond. When they put the shit on the Vietnamese and they tried to force them into cheap labour and all that shit they became so hard that they couldn’t beat them. They couldn’t beat the motherfuckers because they’re so hard. They go to any lengths to win.
That’s what the governments are going to create out of the poor, the mismanaged and all that other part of society that they don’t like to deal with — they’ll create hardcore killers. I see it every day in the street, because people out here don’t give a fuck about nothing. You can’t control them.
You’ll wake up in a cold sweat, panic!
(cover art: Riot EP, Interstellar Fugitives 2)
