WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.200 So imagine being a globally influential music 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.380 producer. Okay. You are literally shaping the 00:00:08.380 --> 00:00:11.140 defining sound of an entire city. Right. Your 00:00:11.140 --> 00:00:13.240 records are being played in underground clubs 00:00:13.240 --> 00:00:16.179 all over the world. We're talking Berlin, Tokyo, 00:00:16.500 --> 00:00:19.239 London. The absolute biggest stages. Exactly. 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:22.500 But, and here's the catch, you absolutely refuse 00:00:22.500 --> 00:00:25.300 to let anyone take your photograph. Wow. You 00:00:25.300 --> 00:00:27.100 completely reject the spotlight. I mean, think 00:00:27.100 --> 00:00:29.879 about it. Could you resist the pull of fame in 00:00:29.879 --> 00:00:32.600 today's, you know, image obsessed world? It's 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:35.039 a huge question. Could you stay completely anonymous 00:00:35.039 --> 00:00:38.119 while your creations just become legendary? It 00:00:38.119 --> 00:00:41.020 is a fascinating paradox, especially today, because 00:00:41.020 --> 00:00:42.920 we live in a culture where so much of modern 00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:47.539 success is tied to. building a recognizable personal 00:00:47.539 --> 00:00:49.979 brand. Oh, your face is your currency. Literally. 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:52.740 Yeah. So to actively dismantle that, to hide 00:00:52.740 --> 00:00:54.979 your identity and insist that only the work matters. 00:00:55.039 --> 00:00:56.939 I mean, it takes an incredible amount of discipline 00:00:56.939 --> 00:01:00.060 and a deeply rooted philosophy. And that philosophy 00:01:00.060 --> 00:01:02.880 is exactly what we're getting into today. So 00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:05.260 if you caught the title of today's Deep Dive, 00:01:05.299 --> 00:01:07.540 you know we are unpacking the enigmatic world 00:01:07.540 --> 00:01:10.060 of Michael Anthony Banks. Better known as Mad 00:01:10.060 --> 00:01:12.760 Mike Banks. The one and only. We're using his 00:01:12.760 --> 00:01:15.219 Wikipedia article as our primary source material 00:01:15.219 --> 00:01:18.319 today. And really our mission is to understand 00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:21.099 how this one man became a foundational pillar 00:01:21.099 --> 00:01:25.719 of the second generation of Detroit techno. All 00:01:25.719 --> 00:01:27.790 while fiercely guarding his anonymity. Which 00:01:27.790 --> 00:01:30.790 is just... Wild. Truly wild. We're going to explore 00:01:30.790 --> 00:01:33.250 his surprising musical roots, the global spread 00:01:33.250 --> 00:01:35.250 of electronic music, the fiercely independent 00:01:35.250 --> 00:01:38.930 submerged distribution, and his massive catalog 00:01:38.930 --> 00:01:41.670 of sci -fi aliases. It's a remarkable journey. 00:01:41.969 --> 00:01:43.989 Yeah. And while the music itself is revolutionary, 00:01:44.409 --> 00:01:47.450 Banks' broader cultural and systemic impact is 00:01:47.450 --> 00:01:49.930 what truly cements his legacy. We're looking 00:01:49.930 --> 00:01:52.189 at someone who didn't just make great beats. 00:01:52.349 --> 00:01:54.790 He built an entire infrastructure to protect 00:01:54.790 --> 00:01:57.370 the artistic integrity and really the economic 00:01:57.370 --> 00:01:59.989 power of his community. He saw the pitfalls. 00:02:00.409 --> 00:02:03.609 Exactly. He saw how the music industry historically 00:02:03.609 --> 00:02:06.530 treated artists, particularly black artists from 00:02:06.530 --> 00:02:09.509 Detroit, and he engineered a completely different 00:02:09.509 --> 00:02:12.310 path. Let's start with his origin story, actually, 00:02:12.349 --> 00:02:14.889 because it's not what you might expect for an 00:02:14.889 --> 00:02:17.090 electronic music pioneer. Not at all. Before 00:02:17.090 --> 00:02:19.550 the synthesized beats, before the classic, you 00:02:19.550 --> 00:02:22.750 know, 808 and 909 drum machines became the backbone 00:02:22.750 --> 00:02:25.590 of dance music. He was a studio musician. Yes. 00:02:25.629 --> 00:02:27.870 And he wasn't just playing for anyone. He was 00:02:27.870 --> 00:02:30.930 playing bass and guitar for. Parliament Funkadelic. 00:02:30.949 --> 00:02:33.930 Which is a massive, incredibly telling detail. 00:02:34.210 --> 00:02:36.810 Right. Transitioning from live, groove -heavy 00:02:36.810 --> 00:02:40.289 studio instrumentation to the synthesized, machine 00:02:40.289 --> 00:02:43.330 -driven world of electronic music. That is a 00:02:43.330 --> 00:02:46.030 profound shift. Oh, completely. Because Parliament 00:02:46.030 --> 00:02:48.729 Funkadelic, or P -Funk, led by George Clinton. 00:02:48.909 --> 00:02:51.030 Absolute legends. Right. They are the absolute 00:02:51.030 --> 00:02:54.330 pinnacle of live, organic, sprawling funk music. 00:02:54.509 --> 00:02:57.710 It's sweaty, it's highly improvisational, and 00:02:57.710 --> 00:03:00.120 it is deeply rooted in the physical interplay 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:02.900 between dozens of musicians on a stage or in 00:03:02.900 --> 00:03:05.060 a studio. You're talking about like slap bass, 00:03:05.259 --> 00:03:08.659 crazy guitar solos, and a totally unquantitized 00:03:08.659 --> 00:03:12.159 human groove. Yes. And he had to take that loose 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:15.659 human swing and somehow force it into the strict, 00:03:15.860 --> 00:03:19.780 rigid grid of early synthesizers and analog sequencers. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:22.680 Exactly. Because in electronic music, you use 00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:25.639 a process called quantization. which snaps your 00:03:25.639 --> 00:03:28.319 notes perfectly onto a mathematical grid so the 00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:30.460 machine can play it back in perfect time. Which 00:03:30.460 --> 00:03:33.159 can easily sound robotic. Totally robotic and 00:03:33.159 --> 00:03:36.780 lifeless. But because Banks understood the architecture 00:03:36.780 --> 00:03:39.719 of a funk groove from the inside out, he knew 00:03:39.719 --> 00:03:42.900 how to program those machines to retain a human 00:03:42.900 --> 00:03:45.800 feel. He brought the funk to the machines. He 00:03:45.800 --> 00:03:48.759 really did. It perfectly illustrates how Detroit's 00:03:48.759 --> 00:03:51.340 musical heritage evolved rather than being erased. 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:54.460 The soul of P -funk didn't disappear. It was 00:03:54.460 --> 00:03:56.039 just encoded into the circuitry. And you can 00:03:56.039 --> 00:03:58.039 actually hear this transition happening in real 00:03:58.039 --> 00:04:00.500 time if you look at his work in the late 1980s. 00:04:00.520 --> 00:04:02.879 Right, with members of the house. Exactly. He 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:05.120 started working with that collective, and they 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:07.759 released several 12 -inch singles. You've got 00:04:07.759 --> 00:04:11.500 Keep Believin' in 1987 and Share This House in 00:04:11.500 --> 00:04:14.780 1988. Classic record. And if you listen to those 00:04:14.780 --> 00:04:16.740 tracks, you can hear the bridge being built. 00:04:16.839 --> 00:04:20.019 It still has the vocals and the warmth of traditional 00:04:20.019 --> 00:04:23.879 R &D and funk, but the tempo is pushing up and 00:04:23.879 --> 00:04:26.379 those electronic drums are really taking center 00:04:26.379 --> 00:04:29.180 stage. It gave his flavor of Detroit techno a 00:04:29.180 --> 00:04:32.160 completely different feeling than the colder, 00:04:32.279 --> 00:04:35.100 more clinical electronic music that was starting 00:04:35.100 --> 00:04:36.839 to come out of Europe at the time. Yeah, it had 00:04:36.839 --> 00:04:39.759 a swing to it. It had warmth. It had a physical 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:42.899 memory of a live band, even if it was made entirely 00:04:42.899 --> 00:04:46.240 by one guy in a bedroom with a sampler. It really 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:48.680 makes you think about your own career pivots, 00:04:48.699 --> 00:04:50.899 doesn't it? How so? Well, think about it. When 00:04:50.899 --> 00:04:53.920 you jump from, say, customer service to software 00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:56.620 engineering or you go from studying biology to 00:04:56.620 --> 00:04:58.839 working in marketing, you bring secret weapons 00:04:58.839 --> 00:05:00.879 with you. Oh, absolutely. Your past experiences 00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:03.939 give you a hidden edge. For Mike Banks, knowing 00:05:03.939 --> 00:05:06.459 how to lay down a live bass line for George Clinton 00:05:06.459 --> 00:05:09.259 gave him a massive advantage when he started 00:05:09.259 --> 00:05:11.860 programming synthesizers. And that technical 00:05:11.860 --> 00:05:14.639 mastery really set the stage for what he would 00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:17.300 do next. Because once he had the sound dialed 00:05:17.300 --> 00:05:20.000 in, he realized he needed a vehicle to get it 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:22.660 out to the world on his own terms. Which brings 00:05:22.660 --> 00:05:26.120 us to a really pivotal moment in the late 1980s. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:29.759 Banks... Teams up with another absolute legend 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:32.360 in the electronic music scene, Jeff Mills. Yes. 00:05:32.540 --> 00:05:34.399 And they create the record label Underground 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:37.920 Resistance, often just called UR. And along with 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:40.500 Robert Hood, another giant in the scene, they 00:05:40.500 --> 00:05:42.420 produced most of the label's early releases. 00:05:42.540 --> 00:05:45.019 We're talking seminal records here. The Waveform 00:05:45.019 --> 00:05:48.980 EP, Nation to Nation in 1991. The formation of 00:05:48.980 --> 00:05:51.100 Underground Resistance just cannot be overstated. 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:53.300 They were basically the holy trinity of the second 00:05:53.300 --> 00:05:55.800 wave of Detroit techno. Definitely. But UR wasn't 00:05:55.800 --> 00:05:58.160 just a traditional record label. It was a militant, 00:05:58.180 --> 00:06:00.740 fiercely independent collective. Their visual 00:06:00.740 --> 00:06:03.220 presentation was striking. Oh, yeah. The aesthetics 00:06:03.220 --> 00:06:06.060 were intense. They wore black combat boots, black 00:06:06.060 --> 00:06:17.120 ski masks. And their sound matched that aesthetic 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:20.279 perfectly. It was fast, it was aggressive, and 00:06:20.279 --> 00:06:22.480 it demanded your attention. It wasn't background 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:25.240 music. No, not at all. Yeah. Eventually, though, 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:27.920 Hood and Mills departed UR to pursue their own 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:30.579 legendary solo careers. Right, both becoming 00:06:30.579 --> 00:06:33.199 global superstars in their own right. Which is 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:35.439 amazing, but you might assume that losing two 00:06:35.439 --> 00:06:37.360 towering figures like that would kill the label. 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:40.439 Most labels would sold. But Banks didn't. He 00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:42.379 took over completely. He headed the label himself, 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:45.620 continuing his own prolific productions, but 00:06:45.620 --> 00:06:48.560 also acting as an incubator for incredible acts 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:51.540 like Sean Deeson and the mysterious duo Drixia. 00:06:51.699 --> 00:06:54.560 Bringing Drixia into the UR fold is a perfect 00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:56.910 example of Banks' vision. Such a fascinating 00:06:56.910 --> 00:06:59.629 group. Because Drekchia didn't just make incredible, 00:06:59.790 --> 00:07:04.189 complex electro music. They built an entire Afrofuturist 00:07:04.189 --> 00:07:06.769 mythos. Right. They created a sonic narrative 00:07:06.769 --> 00:07:09.910 about an underwater civilization founded by the 00:07:09.910 --> 00:07:12.670 unborn children of pregnant enslaved women thrown 00:07:12.670 --> 00:07:15.259 overboard during the Middle Passage. Just incredibly 00:07:15.259 --> 00:07:18.879 heavy, conceptual, deeply imaginative art. Exactly. 00:07:19.019 --> 00:07:22.339 And Banks provided the platform for that kind 00:07:22.339 --> 00:07:25.579 of uncompromising vision to reach a global audience 00:07:25.579 --> 00:07:28.199 without being watered down by major label executives. 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:30.860 And the way he guaranteed that independence is 00:07:30.860 --> 00:07:34.120 perhaps his smartest move of all. Submerge. Submerge. 00:07:34.199 --> 00:07:37.899 In 1992, Banks co -founded Submerge Distribution 00:07:37.899 --> 00:07:41.180 with Krista Robinson. Now, distribution sounds 00:07:41.180 --> 00:07:43.819 like a pretty dry logistical business term. It 00:07:43.819 --> 00:07:46.720 does. But looking at the industry back then, 00:07:46.860 --> 00:07:48.959 whoever controlled the vinyl pipeline controlled 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:51.560 the artist, right? Oh, absolutely. Did they basically 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:53.360 build this so they wouldn't get swallowed by 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:55.560 major labels? That is exactly why they built 00:07:55.560 --> 00:07:58.180 it. Think about the physical reality of the music 00:07:58.180 --> 00:08:01.410 business in 1992. You are not just uploading 00:08:01.410 --> 00:08:03.389 an MP3 to the internet. Right, no streaming. 00:08:03.610 --> 00:08:06.170 You are pressing heavy physical vinyl records. 00:08:06.329 --> 00:08:08.589 You have to melt the wax, press the grooves, 00:08:08.829 --> 00:08:11.029 print the cardboard sleeves, pack them into heavy 00:08:11.029 --> 00:08:13.689 boxes, and get them onto cargo planes and ships 00:08:13.689 --> 00:08:16.730 to reach a DJ's hands in Berlin or Tokyo. That's 00:08:16.730 --> 00:08:19.579 a massive undertaking. It is. And traditionally, 00:08:19.860 --> 00:08:22.959 major corporate labels control that entire pipeline. 00:08:23.139 --> 00:08:24.740 And if they control the pipeline, they dictate 00:08:24.740 --> 00:08:27.000 your release schedule, they take the lion's share 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:29.279 of the profits, and they often own your master 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:31.779 recordings. So by creating submerged distribution, 00:08:32.220 --> 00:08:34.960 Banks and Robinson essentially built their own 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:37.059 independent highway to the rest of the world. 00:08:37.179 --> 00:08:40.149 Precisely. They created an independent conduit 00:08:40.149 --> 00:08:43.009 to distribute Detroit based techno worldwide. 00:08:43.629 --> 00:08:46.509 They proved you could have a massive global footprint 00:08:46.509 --> 00:08:48.789 without selling out to a corporate structure. 00:08:48.889 --> 00:08:51.789 That's huge. Submerge became the central nervous 00:08:51.789 --> 00:08:54.210 system for Detroit's independent electronic music 00:08:54.210 --> 00:08:56.990 scene. It wasn't just about moving units. It 00:08:56.990 --> 00:08:59.289 was about keeping the economic power and the 00:08:59.289 --> 00:09:01.970 cultural power. firmly rooted in their own neighborhood. 00:09:02.230 --> 00:09:05.129 Having that total control meant his sound could 00:09:05.129 --> 00:09:07.629 go to some incredibly abrasive and experimental 00:09:07.629 --> 00:09:09.789 places, too. Because nobody was telling him no. 00:09:09.990 --> 00:09:12.830 Right. The source notes that his early influences 00:09:12.830 --> 00:09:15.529 included the first -generation Detroit techno 00:09:15.529 --> 00:09:18.950 pioneers. You know, Derek May, Juan Atkins, and 00:09:18.950 --> 00:09:21.250 Marshall Jefferson over in Chicago. But as he 00:09:21.250 --> 00:09:23.809 kept producing through the 90s, his work showed 00:09:23.809 --> 00:09:26.529 an increasing interest in acid house and industrial 00:09:26.529 --> 00:09:29.879 sounds. Yes, and understand that shift. You have 00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:31.679 to understand the tools and the environment. 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:35.179 Okay. Acid house is defined by the squelching, 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:38.700 almost alien sound of a very specific synthesizer 00:09:38.700 --> 00:09:43.379 called the Roland TB -303. Oh, that classic acid 00:09:43.379 --> 00:09:46.419 sound. Exactly. It has a very distinct resonant 00:09:46.419 --> 00:09:49.659 hypnotic quality. And when you combine that alien 00:09:49.659 --> 00:09:51.899 sound with the hoffness of industrial music, 00:09:51.980 --> 00:09:56.629 you get a sound that is gritty, hard. and unforgiving. 00:09:56.710 --> 00:09:59.389 The music became a reflection of Detroit itself. 00:09:59.590 --> 00:10:02.470 Totally. Because in the 90s, the city was undergoing 00:10:02.470 --> 00:10:05.730 massive deindustrialization. The sound of UR 00:10:05.730 --> 00:10:07.850 became more aggressive and distorted. It sounded 00:10:07.850 --> 00:10:09.549 like the automotive factories that were being 00:10:09.549 --> 00:10:12.049 left behind repurposed into these relentless, 00:10:12.149 --> 00:10:14.970 driving, sonic landscapes. It was the soundtrack 00:10:14.970 --> 00:10:16.970 to a city in transition. And this is where we 00:10:16.970 --> 00:10:19.070 have to talk about his strict ethic of the underground, 00:10:19.289 --> 00:10:20.769 which we touched on at the beginning. Right, 00:10:20.830 --> 00:10:23.009 the anonymity. As the music exploded globally, 00:10:23.669 --> 00:10:26.169 Banks completely refused to be photographed in 00:10:26.169 --> 00:10:29.429 public. It is a radical act of anti -commercialism. 00:10:29.570 --> 00:10:32.509 Completely. The music industry constantly demands 00:10:32.509 --> 00:10:35.190 that artists commodify themselves. Your face 00:10:35.190 --> 00:10:37.549 becomes the product. You are expected to be on 00:10:37.549 --> 00:10:40.450 magazine covers, doing press tours, smiling for 00:10:40.450 --> 00:10:43.269 the cameras. Playing the game. Exactly. And by 00:10:43.269 --> 00:10:46.029 refusing to be photographed, Banks forced the 00:10:46.029 --> 00:10:48.870 listener, the media, and the industry to focus 00:10:48.870 --> 00:10:51.960 entirely on the music and the message. It's a 00:10:51.960 --> 00:10:54.340 profound statement. Yeah. He is basically saying, 00:10:54.379 --> 00:10:57.100 I am not the product. The art is the product. 00:10:57.259 --> 00:11:00.500 Yeah. And he needed that focus on the music because 00:11:00.500 --> 00:11:03.519 his releases often dealt with heavy elements 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:05.980 of political and social commentary. Which was 00:11:05.980 --> 00:11:07.679 actually quite controversial at the time. It 00:11:07.679 --> 00:11:10.019 was. Regardless of where anyone stands on the 00:11:10.019 --> 00:11:12.679 specific political issues he raised, injecting 00:11:12.679 --> 00:11:15.360 harsh, real -world themes into a genre that was 00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:18.740 largely built for 3 a .m. club escapism was a 00:11:18.740 --> 00:11:20.700 radically disruptive move. People were going 00:11:20.700 --> 00:11:22.860 to underground warehouse parties to dance until 00:11:22.860 --> 00:11:25.440 dawn and forget their worldly troubles. Exactly. 00:11:25.539 --> 00:11:27.960 And here comes Mike Banks pressing records with 00:11:27.960 --> 00:11:30.279 titles and liner notes that forced you to confront 00:11:30.279 --> 00:11:33.279 systemic inequality and urban decay. He brought 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:36.480 a punk rock ethos to electronic dance music. 00:11:37.580 --> 00:11:40.240 that you stay awake and aware the club wasn't 00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:42.429 just a place to escape It was a place to gather, 00:11:42.570 --> 00:11:45.149 to mobilize, and to reflect on the reality outside 00:11:45.149 --> 00:11:47.409 the warehouse doors. Okay, speaking of the reality 00:11:47.409 --> 00:11:49.690 outside the doors, there is a piece of trivia 00:11:49.690 --> 00:11:52.350 in the source material that is just wildly relatable 00:11:52.350 --> 00:11:55.769 but in the most bizarre context. Oh, the custom 00:11:55.769 --> 00:11:59.350 story. Yes. In the late 1990s, Mike Banks actually 00:11:59.350 --> 00:12:02.230 quit playing live shows. He didn't return to 00:12:02.230 --> 00:12:05.490 the stage until the mid -2000s. A huge hiatus 00:12:05.490 --> 00:12:07.860 for an artist of that size. And the reason. The 00:12:07.860 --> 00:12:10.659 source says it was due to continuing problems 00:12:10.659 --> 00:12:13.120 with bringing electronic equipment through customs 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:16.519 agencies. I mean, could you imagine the TSA trying 00:12:16.519 --> 00:12:20.039 to swab down a vintage Roland drum machine? It 00:12:20.039 --> 00:12:22.899 sounds almost comical today, but it highlights 00:12:22.899 --> 00:12:26.179 a very real logistical nightmare for early electronic 00:12:26.179 --> 00:12:28.279 musicians touring the globe. Oh, absolutely. 00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:30.320 I mean, I get annoyed when I have to take my 00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:32.379 laptop out of my backpack at airport security. 00:12:32.620 --> 00:12:35.120 Imagine dealing with so much red tape that you 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:38.379 actually pause a global touring career. Picture 00:12:38.379 --> 00:12:40.899 being a customs agent at Heathrow Airport in 00:12:40.899 --> 00:12:45.379 1998, and this guy rolls up with massive, heavy, 00:12:45.419 --> 00:12:48.559 black road cases full of analog synthesizers, 00:12:48.600 --> 00:12:51.600 drum machines, hundreds of tangled patch cables, 00:12:51.720 --> 00:12:54.259 and glowing motherboards. To a customs agent 00:12:54.259 --> 00:12:57.139 who has never seen electronic music gear, it 00:12:57.139 --> 00:12:59.240 probably looked highly suspicious, maybe even 00:12:59.240 --> 00:13:01.080 dangerous. Definitely. And you have to remember 00:13:01.080 --> 00:13:04.539 how fragile and heavy this analog gear was. These 00:13:04.539 --> 00:13:06.279 machines were not built to be thrown into the 00:13:06.279 --> 00:13:09.539 cargo hold of a 7. No, they were incredibly delicate. 00:13:11.059 --> 00:13:20.460 But the silver lining of stepping back from that 00:13:20.460 --> 00:13:22.940 grueling live performance circuit is that it 00:13:22.940 --> 00:13:26.179 kept him locked in the studio. And this is where 00:13:26.179 --> 00:13:28.519 the sheer volume and creativity of his discography 00:13:28.519 --> 00:13:31.360 just explodes. He starts using these incredible 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:33.820 aliases to release different styles of music. 00:13:34.139 --> 00:13:36.659 The naming conventions alone are a masterclass. 00:13:36.649 --> 00:13:39.990 They really are. They reflect a deep commitment 00:13:39.990 --> 00:13:42.769 to the sci -fi roots of Detroit techno. Let's 00:13:42.769 --> 00:13:45.009 look at the list here. Under the alias X101, 00:13:45.289 --> 00:13:48.350 he releases an EP called Sonic Destroyer in 1991. 00:13:48.929 --> 00:13:51.629 Great title. Then the project evolves into X102, 00:13:51.769 --> 00:13:54.009 and he drops an album called Discovers the Rings 00:13:54.009 --> 00:13:56.669 of Saturn on the legendary German label Trezor 00:13:56.669 --> 00:14:00.169 in 1992. And that album literally maps its tracks 00:14:00.169 --> 00:14:02.509 to the physical rings of the planet Saturn. So 00:14:02.509 --> 00:14:04.889 cool. But then we get my favorite alias, The 00:14:04.889 --> 00:14:07.549 Martian. Look at these track titles from The 00:14:07.549 --> 00:14:11.070 Martian. Meet the Red Planet, Sex and Zero Gravity, 00:14:11.429 --> 00:14:14.029 Journey to the Martian Polar Cap, The Long Winter 00:14:14.029 --> 00:14:16.610 of Mars. What's fascinating here is how these 00:14:16.610 --> 00:14:19.529 titles and aliases tap into a distinct Afrofuturist 00:14:19.529 --> 00:14:22.870 theme. Right. Afrofuturism often uses the imagery 00:14:22.870 --> 00:14:25.610 of space exploration and science fiction to imagine 00:14:25.610 --> 00:14:28.549 a future free from earthly oppression and historical 00:14:28.549 --> 00:14:31.490 trauma. Leaving the Earth behind. Exactly. By 00:14:31.490 --> 00:14:35.129 using names like X101 or The Martian, Banks is 00:14:35.129 --> 00:14:37.529 creating entire universes of sound where those 00:14:37.529 --> 00:14:40.129 boundaries just don't exist. If the reality on 00:14:40.129 --> 00:14:42.490 the ground is harsh and restrictive, deep space 00:14:42.490 --> 00:14:44.970 becomes the ultimate frontier of freedom. He's 00:14:44.970 --> 00:14:48.179 literally looking to the stars. And he pushes 00:14:48.179 --> 00:14:50.740 this concept even further when he launches the 00:14:50.740 --> 00:14:54.879 project Galaxy to Galaxy. With this alias, he 00:14:54.879 --> 00:14:57.519 introduces this incredible musical concept known 00:14:57.519 --> 00:15:00.600 as high -tech jazz, featuring tracks like Journey 00:15:00.600 --> 00:15:03.200 of the Dragons and Astral Apache. The concept 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:05.879 of high -tech jazz is brilliant because it explicitly 00:15:05.879 --> 00:15:08.840 connects the past to the future. How so? Well, 00:15:08.860 --> 00:15:11.919 musically, he's taking the complex improvisational 00:15:11.919 --> 00:15:15.659 soul of jazz music using real saxophones, live 00:15:15.659 --> 00:15:18.379 bass playing, complex jazz chords. Yeah. And 00:15:18.379 --> 00:15:20.500 he's laying them over blistering high -speed 00:15:20.500 --> 00:15:24.120 synthesized techno percussion. Jazz is fundamentally 00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:27.220 black American music born from a specific history. 00:15:27.299 --> 00:15:29.600 Right. By projecting it into a sci -fi future 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:32.220 using the latest technology, he's drawing a straight 00:15:32.220 --> 00:15:34.460 line from jazz legends like Charlie Parker or 00:15:34.460 --> 00:15:37.120 John Coltrane directly to a synthesizer in Detroit. 00:15:37.379 --> 00:15:39.340 It perfectly ties back to what we talked about 00:15:39.340 --> 00:15:41.080 at the very beginning. It really does. He is 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:44.080 taking that live P -funk studio musician background, 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:47.220 the organic human groove, and launching it into 00:15:47.220 --> 00:15:49.279 orbit. He's not just making dance tracks. He's 00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:51.279 authoring science fiction novels through sound. 00:15:51.720 --> 00:15:54.720 And because he remained completely faceless throughout 00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:57.759 all of this, the listener is completely immersed 00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:00.820 in the fantasy. No, entirely. When you listen 00:16:00.820 --> 00:16:03.120 to a track by The Martian, you aren't picturing 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:06.120 Mike Banks in a studio turning knobs. You're 00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:08.259 picturing a transmission broadcasting from the 00:16:08.259 --> 00:16:11.080 surface of another planet. The anonymity serves 00:16:11.080 --> 00:16:13.570 the art perfectly. it creates a pure connection 00:16:13.570 --> 00:16:15.629 between the sound and the listener's imagination 00:16:15.629 --> 00:16:18.789 there is no ego getting in the way none at all 00:16:18.789 --> 00:16:21.429 so if we look at the whole picture the legacy 00:16:21.429 --> 00:16:24.850 of mad mike banks is just staggering he is a 00:16:24.850 --> 00:16:28.009 masterful synthesizer of genres absolutely he 00:16:28.009 --> 00:16:30.889 took the sweaty live organic funk of his early 00:16:30.889 --> 00:16:33.590 days and welded it to the driving industrial 00:16:33.590 --> 00:16:37.110 thud of machines he was a fierce advocate for 00:16:37.110 --> 00:16:38.990 independence building the underground resistance 00:16:38.990 --> 00:16:41.899 and submerged distribution empires so that that 00:16:41.899 --> 00:16:44.080 Detroit artists wouldn't have to beg major labels 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:46.200 for a seat at the table. He built his own table. 00:16:46.340 --> 00:16:48.179 He physically controlled the vinyl pipeline. 00:16:48.620 --> 00:16:51.320 And above all, he is a pioneer who let the music, 00:16:51.539 --> 00:16:53.580 the political message, and the sci -fi escapism 00:16:53.580 --> 00:16:56.340 speak entirely for themselves by completely removing 00:16:56.340 --> 00:16:58.659 his face from the equation. A true visionary. 00:16:59.159 --> 00:17:01.100 Before we leave you today, I want to say a huge 00:17:01.100 --> 00:17:03.519 thank you to you, our listener, for joining us 00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:05.980 on this deep dive into the world of Detroit techno 00:17:05.980 --> 00:17:09.400 and the uncompromising vision of Mad Mike Banks. 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:12.160 Keep exploring, keep listening, and we'll catch 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:14.519 you on the next deep dive. But before you go, 00:17:14.619 --> 00:17:16.519 I want to hand it over for one final thought 00:17:16.519 --> 00:17:20.099 on the nature of legacy. We live in an era where 00:17:20.099 --> 00:17:22.980 everyone, from artists to everyday professionals, 00:17:23.299 --> 00:17:26.420 is told that visibility is the only path to success. 00:17:27.160 --> 00:17:29.680 We are expected to share every detail of our 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:32.460 lives online, to constantly update our status 00:17:32.460 --> 00:17:35.299 and to build a personal brand. Yet Mike Banks 00:17:35.299 --> 00:17:38.319 built a lasting global legacy by remaining completely 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:41.380 unseen. He let the political weight and the futuristic 00:17:41.380 --> 00:17:43.819 vision of his music be his only public face. 00:17:44.119 --> 00:17:46.779 So I leave you with this question. What could 00:17:46.779 --> 00:17:48.759 you accomplish if you completely removed your 00:17:48.759 --> 00:17:51.799 ego, your image and your need for personal recognition 00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:54.660 from your life's work? If the work itself was 00:17:54.660 --> 00:17:56.579 the only thing that mattered. How far could it 00:17:56.579 --> 00:17:56.759 go?