Each month in the magazine we play an artist or group a series of tracks which they are asked to comment on – with no prior knowledge of what they are about to hear.

In The Wire 494 it is the turn of DJ, composer and techno pioneer Jeff Mills.

Here you can listen to a mix of the tracks our correspondent Chal Ravens played to Jeff during the interview, which is published in full in The Wire 494. To find out what Jeff said about them, subscribers can read the interview in our online magazine library here. Or you can buy a copy of the magazine in our online shop.

But first, a brief biography of our subject:

Born in Detroit in 1963, Jeff Mills grew up steeped in the musical riches of the Motor City and the cultural byproducts of the space age. Inspired by funk and hiphop, Mills established himself as Detroit’s most technically gifted radio DJ in the 1980s under his turntablist alias The Wizard. After releasing an album of sample-heavy industrial dance with local duo Final Cut, he joined forces with Robert Hood and Mike Banks in 1989 to launch Underground Resistance, a techno collective that merged militant political messaging with a raw and minimal sound.

UR’s success in Europe, particularly in post-Wall Berlin, was the springboard for Mills’s lengthy career as a producer (mostly through his own Axis Records and its sublabels) and a hard-touring DJ, with his Roland TR-909 drum machine often in tow. Later, Mills turned his attention to the concert hall, gallery and movie theatre, completing an album with The Montpelier Philharmonic Orchestra, a residency at the Louvre, and several scores for silent films, including two for Fritz Lang’s 1927 sci-fi classic Metropolis.

His latest project is The Love Pretender, the second album from Spiral Deluxe, a jazz fusion quartet with Moog player Yumiko Ohno, bassist Kenji Hino and UR keyboardist Gerald Mitchell.

Jeff Mills’s Invisible Jukebox playlist (with timestamps)

Herbie Hancock (00:00)
“Nobu”
From Dedication
(CBS/Sony) 1974

Coldcut (07:42)
“Say Kids What Time Is It?”
12"
(No label) 1987

3MB (12:29)
“Jazz Is The Teacher (Magic Juan Edit)”
From 3MB Featuring Magic Juan Atkins
(Tresor) 1992

Louis & Bebe Barron (22:07)
“Flurry Of Dust – A Robot Approaches”
From Forbidden Planet
(Poppydisc) 1956

Art Zoyd (23:18)
“Apparition Du Robot (The Appearance Of The Robot)”
From Metropolis
(In-Possible) 2002

Nitzer Ebb (25:22)
“Murderous”
From That Total Age
(Geffen) 1987

patten (31:05)
“Drivetime”
From Mirage FM
(555-5555) 2023