Person · 1963 · Detroit [42.33, -83.05]
Jeff Mills
A Detroit DJ known as The Wizard on local radio, Mills was a co-founder of Underground Resistance before leaving to build a fiercely independent solo career. His fast, minimal, percussive style and his releases on Berlin's Tresor label made him one of the most influential figures in the music's second wave. He turned the DJ set into a kind of high-velocity composition.
Evidence2
- MusicBrainz: Jeff MillsMusicBrainz
musicbrainz.org/artist/470a4ced-1323-4c91-8fd5-0bb3fb4c932a
accessed 2026-06-04
- Wikidata: Jeff MillsWikidata
www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q506851
accessed 2026-06-04
Connections3
migrated from → Underground Resistance
Jeff Mills co-founded Underground Resistance and then left the collective to pursue a starkly independent solo path. His departure carried UR's hard, minimal aesthetic into a global DJ career and onto Berlin's Tresor label. The split marks the moment Detroit's second wave fanned out internationally.
migrates to → Jeff Mills — Waveform Transmission, Volume 1
Jeff Mills released Waveform Transmission, Volume 1 on Berlin's Tresor label in 1993, a defining document of the Detroit-to-Berlin axis. The record shows how the city's producers found a second home and a wider audience in reunified Germany.
migrates to → Tresor (Berlin)
Jeff Mills was among the leading Detroit producers whom Berlin's Tresor club and label hosted, releasing his Waveform Transmission records through the German imprint. His residency made Tresor a second home for the Detroit sound as techno decentralized into Berlin.