Missions

Channelling a love of Depeche Mode, Austin analogue synth musician Missions works himself up into a shoulder-jerking, hot-under-the-collar moment on new single Darrk/Blakk. Lashings of lascivious synths almost obscure the yearning vocoder chorus – I got this feeling / you have too – and the whole thing burns rather wickedly. In other words, it’s darn catchy. Austin label Pau Wau Records released Darrk/Blakk on triangle-shaped 7” vinyl a couple of weeks back but you can stream the whole thing here, including a twerky, early hours rework by White Car.

Text by: Ruth Saxelby - Dummy Magazine

Every song that gets touched by the sticky fingers of Elon Katz gets mutated without any chance of rehabilitation. The front man of White Car throws a few raunchy rearrangements into ‘Darrk/Blakk’ – the powerful A-side of a new 7” by Austin based Missions. The synth-pop tinged gloom jam has a firm body by default, but gets even more muscle after this exercise.

Pau Wau Records will release the vinyl on July 6th – pre-orders are available here. - non-reality.com

PREMIERE: MISSIONS - NIGHT TERRAS Download a dense, spooky track from a compilation made from field recordings of the Muzzein’s call to prayer in Palestine.

Text:Tamara El Essawi
‘The Nablus Project’ is undoubtedly one of the most interesting compilations to come out for a little while. All the recordings on their, which include exclusive tracks from Arc Light, MEGAFORTRESS and other such experimental musicians, are all based around field recordings of the call to prayer sung by the Muzzeins in mosques in the Palestinian city of Nablus.



The field recordings themselves were made by the French sound recordist Pierre Gauthier, who observed that the shape of the Nablus valley in Palestine created a large composite reverb effect that gave his recordings an ethereal, beautifully strange quality. The editors behind International Tapes and Coco’s OCD were so impressed by these recordings that they asked a series of artists to rework the field recordings into the compilation, which you can stream below through bandcamp. We also have an exclusive download of one of the tracks, Night Terras by Austin synth experimenter Missions, which demonstrates the brilliantly otherworldly, haunting quality of the recordings. - DummyMag

When considering the myriad, global sects of Muslims and their wide range of scriptural interpretations, it becomes difficult to pin down what's halal or what's haram in the relationship between music and Islam. Some, for instance, could take offense at the adhan (a sung call to prayer from a delegated citizen) being used outside of its intended sacred purpose, but they'd be missing out on that rare, accessible blend of artistic beauty and spiritual devotion that made Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and his Qawwali performances so memorable, or even outside the realm of Islam in Olivier Messiaen's groundbreaking orchestrations of the apocalypse.

Luckily, the editors of Coco's OCD and International Tapes, Coco Zoabi and Luke Carrell, have commissioned The Nablus Project with that same goal in mind. The compilation was germinated from a field recording taken by Pierre Gauthier, one of an adhan echoing through the valley of Nablus, Palestine where he was staying one night. When Gauthier played the recording back to Zoabi and Carrell, they were inspired to gather some of their favorite artists like MEGAFORTRESS, Ñaka Ñaka, White Ninja, and Lee Noble, among many more, to offer their re-interpretations of the call, all using Gauthier's original sample to build their tracks. The entire compilation is available for stream below.

The Nablus Project is available now on bandcamp, all proceeds go to charity.

By Matt Sullivan - Ad Hoc

Austin space cadet Josh Mills gets as geeked out about the DIY sci-fi kitsch of early Star Wars as he does about the faux-robo beats of Kraftwerk and Phil Collins. It’s little wonder that Missions, Mills’s EDM star noir singularity, has taken on a pulsing life of its own.

“Everything is alive,” Mills said over the phone from his Austin home. “Everything is very calculated, and onstage every cable has to be put in the exact right spot or else…it’ll go crazy [laughs].”



When Mills released his first Missions mixtape in 2009 the project was a live trio known by audiences for slamming on analog and digital implements arranged around the stage. Since losing his bandmates to other projects and obligations, though, Mills has retooled his persona into a one-man battlestation of synths, sequencers and hexagonal drum pads. While he bleeds out lushly brooding future beats (think Grimes given Ritalin), longtime visual conspirators VIDKIDZ lave crowds in lasers, fractals, remixed memes and other projections of “Post-Internet psychedelia” that literally sent one kid to the hospital with a case of minor epilepsy. (He turned out to be one of Mills’s close friends; he was cool with it.)

“I felt terrible, but at least now we can say we made someone collapse,” Mills says.



As Missions continues to evolve, Mills, as ever, keeps one foot in the future and one in the past. The Darrk/Blakk 7?, out on Pau Wau on July 6, features a remastered cut of Mills’s first-ever song written as Missions years ago, with limited editions pressed on triangular vinyl (“not really a geodesic triangle; more of a Star Trek shape with curved sides”). Mills hopes to get his debut LP out before the apocalypse, which, as his website will tell you, is just over seven months away. The mission until then?

“Treat every day like it’s your last until December 21"

Words by Brandon Specktor - CMJ

On my recent visit to Austin, TX I was lucky enough to catch Missions perform a set. He was surrounded by vintage equipment, a control center shrouded in synth. ‘Darrk/Blakk’ is the A-Side of his upcoming 7? via Pau Wau Records. It sounds as what I assume an early 80s’ Depech Mode demo would sound like via a walkman running dangerously low on batteries. Haunting vocals seem to sit between towering walls of synthetic goo slowly dripping into your ears. Looking forward to more from Missions. - ISO50

Internet ha cambiato le nostre vite, OK, questo lo sappiamo tutti. Possiamo guardare porno da pervertiti, andare su Chatroulette, spiare la gente su Facebook, avere conversazioni molto interessanti in pigiama. E possiamo fare tutte queste cose mentre scarichiamo musica. Mica come una volta, quando c’erano solo amici che duplicavano cassette e si passavano i pomeriggi in negozio a sentire mille cose per poi tirarne su una.

Con l’arrivo del filesharing è diventato tutto più semplice, ma i dischi dovevi andare a cercarteli lo stesso. Poi qualcuno ha avuto la grande idea di creare i blog evitandoci qualsiasi sbattimento. Blog che, negli ultimi anni, hanno subito un’evoluzione fino a trasformarsi in veri e propri siti dove, oltre ad incoraggiare la pirateria, si può scoprire un sacco di roba nuova, come succedeva con le fanzine. International Tapes è uno di questi blog. Uno tra i più fighi, anche. Perché si dà il caso che a questi ragazzi–che collaboravano con il neo-defunto Altered Zones–piacciano parecchio quei generi che fino a un po’ di tempo fa non avremmo mai pensato di ascoltare: roba indiana con gente in copertina che somiglia a Pozzetto, compilation dance cinesi, colonne sonore delle olimpiadi Sud Coreane. Una specie di Sublime Frequencies per scrocconi, insomma. Della mixtape che hanno fatto per noi dicono:

Questa mixtape è composta di musica spremuta fuori dalle teste di gente che arriva da Brasile, Turchia, Regno Unito, Russia, Giappone, Danimarca, Finlandia, Nuova Zelanda, Pleiadi, Messico e Stati Uniti. Contiene perlopiù mid-tempo e pop elettronico, ma questo non vuol dire che sia un mix totalmente innocuo, anche perché è fatto con amore. Se ascolterete questa mixtape da soli, vi consigliamo di accompagnarla con un bel caffè o un vino di quelli forti. Se invece la ascolterete in compagnia, potreste ballarci su qualche lento oppure formare una band.



LE VENERDÌ MIXTAPE VOL. 47 - INTL LUV GEMS, LA MIXTAPE DI INTERNATIONAL TAPES by raumkrank_cassette

scarica qui la mixtape // download the mixtape here:
http://soundcloud.com/raumkrankmix/le-venerd-mixtape-vol-47-intl#new-timed-comment-at-2755703

TRACKLIST:

01. Selda - Yaz Gazeteci Yaz

02. Girlseeker – Love Fuel

03. Enya – Caribbean Blue (Dntel Mix)

04. Memo - Separate Leaves / This Is the Line

05. Babe, Terror – Blueen

06. HNC – I Dream I Dead

07. Missions – Holy Solstice

08. Bomber Jackets – Centurion Timeline

09. Albert Swarm – Familialities

10. Eola – Ancient Hill

11. OS OVNI – In the Night

12. Helado Negro – El Oeste

13. ??üll – rab

14. SURVIVE – Black Mollies

15. Logic System – Crash (Kaos Edit) - Vice Italy

A little late on this Christmas song post, but I dont think you’ll have a hard time getting past the not-so-cheerful vibes in this dark and dreary tune. Missions takes the best part of the elite and respected 80s new wave bands, like Tubeway Army, Human League, New Order, and adds 20+ years of new technology and electronic sounds. Thus far they’ve posted songs on their Soundcloud every few months, but promise at the very least an EP in 2011. - Weekly Tape Deck

Dark disco fans venture out from your caves and head to the Independent this Friday night to catch some heavy space synths from Missions. The group will be playing the Knuckle Rumbler and Playing in Traffic Records’ Valentine’s weekend event: Digital Love. The headliner is local indie-electro band SPEAK, but Missions’ members Amber Zook and Markus Diffee will also be playing in other acts that night. Zook is in the band Love at 20 and Diffee is DJ Markus with a K, who will be providing music in between sets.
Despite the group’s novice status, the Austin-based band has already shared the stage with the likes of Junior Boys. During their very first appearance, Missions opened for the electronic masterminds.
“We couldn’t have asked for more of a perfect show,” Diffee said. The Canadian duo is one of his favorite bands.
Each of the three band members has been involved in separate music projects. Josh Mills (vocals, synth, percussion) is formerly of the now-defunct eight-piece dance outfit, Clap! Clap! More percussion and synths are played by Diffee, who also DJs under the name Markus with a K. Zook completes the electronica on a third set of synths. With their powers combined, Missions delivers chill tracks from the outer reaches of Saturn’s rings.
Before Missions, Diffee and Mills knew each other while living in Dallas. They both ended up moving to Austin: Diffee was chasing the music dream while Mills came to the city for school. Later, they reconnected while working a day job at the trendy clothing chain, American Apparel. The hip soundtrack of the Am Appy atmosphere brought them together—they realized that they shared a mutual love of music and discovered they even share the same birthdate. Their bond became a band.
Diffee puts his graphic-art skills to good use by creating all the promotional design for the band. He bleaches the band’s logo, a pyramid filled with a shadow of Saturn, onto shirts purchased from thrift stores.
Missions’ logo is also found on their self-titled eight-track EP that quietly debuted last fall.
The album opens with the track “Phantasy,” which starts with some industrial sound that quickly fades into heavy synths partnered with vocoder action. “Mayday, Mayday,” features haunting vocals over layers of dark electro.
Highlights include two remixes. One of which is the transformation of Dirty Projectors’ single “Stillness is the Move” into a shiny, danceable gem. The other is the ultimate rework of “Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)” by Enya that changes it from mom’s favorite song to seven minutes of catchy pop set to bangin’ beats.
This kind of creativity is not going to stay under the radar for much longer. Don’t miss out on your chance to see Missions before they explode.
Their music could do damage on any dance floor at any club, but as Zook clearly puts it, “space is the place.”

By Michele Pierini - The Daily Texan

September 9th, 2009

Good morning everyone. I always want you to be as in the loop as possible about Austin music happenings. You come to PartyEnds for the music, and stay for the all you can pie. Hmmm… good ol pie.

I assume that one day I will be one of those bearded old Austin guys in head to toe denim who talks about how the Austin “scene” used to be and will tell my Ghostland Observatory story about seeing them at a long closed down club with a crowd of 10 friends at an ancient music festival called SXSW. I will sip my SpaceLonestar and reflect on the good ol days about back when the Mohawk used to be called something else, I’ll tell horror stories about an awful band that wrote their name on sidewalks all over town called Two Guy Trio and remind the youngsters that there was a time before the staff of Kabobalicious was elected chairmen of the Texas board of Agriculture. Their eyes will roll back into their heads as I go into this one again: “There once was this band from a town called “San Marcos” where everyone who liked to dance and clap got together and formed a band that did nothing but, and lo, they were called Clap! Clap! Then, the reality of herding a band of 10+ people set in and they went their separate ways. Tragic really. I think the main clapper and dancer guy is the head of an advertising agency in New York. Also, I used to have a website with my friend Luther and we gave everyone pie.”

One of the newest projects to emerge from the ashes of Clap!Clap! comes to us in the form of Missions. Missions is composed of Josh Mills who acted as visionary and front man in Clap!Clap! and his new collaborator a long time super star DJ Markus with a K. Amber Zook from Slowreader lends her talents as well. The trio has been in the beat laboratory for a while now and has materialized with a two new tracks that are full of minor keyed snyhs and dark wave beats. It is the dopamine to Clap!Clap!’s serotonin. Channeling the Knife, Joy Division, and Gary Numan, the group very well may bring back the dark toned synthesizer rock of yesteryear with a 2009 space themed twist. - Party Ends

I’ve been in a summertime daze for the last few weeks. I know the sun’s out, I know its supposed to be warm. But the clouds won’t seem to let up and the air won’t get above 80 degrees. So, unfortunately, there’s been a lot of time for bedroom dancing and Mad Men reruns. Today, I offer up a digital 7? with two of my recent favorites: Missions and Charles & Beck. The former have recut the already spectacular “Stillness Is The Move” into a Madonna-era dance jam and the latter have completely reformulated Passion Pit with their friend Gordon Voidwell into some Prince-esque electrofunk atom bomb. - It's the Money Shot

YOU NEED TO BE AWARE OF THIS! I haven't stopped listening to Missions since I accepted the friend request! Missions is the new project of former Clap!Clap! frontman Josh Mills. Armed with only 5 tracks ranging from a must jam Dirty Projectors remix to dark synth pop originals on his Myspace. Fans of the Alan Palomo - VEGA/Neon Indian sound are going to gobble this shit up, I sure did. - The Peen Scene

missions
EVENTUALLY CIRCLING BACK UPON OUR YOUNGER SELVES.
INTERVIEW WITH JOSH MILLS OF MISSIONS.

words: Daniel Perlaky
photography: Jeff Truth
more info: Missions site


Wandering around space is every kid's dream, even if the limits of space are just the farthest reaches of the glow in the dark stars and the warp drive of the space between waking and dreaming. If we're lucky, space and time just elongate and bend around the black holes as we grow older, eventually circling back upon our younger selves.

Josh Mills, Markus with a K, and Amber Zook plant a glowing pyramid in the middle of the stage and proceed to bend and shift the beats and melodies into an ethereal trek towards a foreign, yet familiar, galaxy. Missions' noir electronica provides a complexity that music fans can appreciate while maintaining the childhood fantasies of other worlds. In addition to their own compositions, their mixtapes, especially the ones slowed and throwed, provide glimpses into a band expanding in all directions.
What is the mission you're currently on?
The same mission we're always on: survival + enjoyment. If what the Mayans predicted is true, then we have less than 3 years left on this planet. We're going to acquire all the survival skills and make the best of our lives while we can. And if 2012 doesn't happen, then at least we'll know we made the best of our time here on Earth. We have a song in the works that is about this concept; it's called "Holy Solstice."

During the Soviet / U.S. space race who do you think had more style and why?
Style, eh? Well, even though we got to the moon first (supposedly), the Soviets were the first ones to tackle space travel with Sputnik 1 & 2. They even sent animals up before us. It's like the US was the jealous boy on the first day of school at the playground who saw the other kids hopping on the tire-swing first before he knew what it was, so from then on, he ran full-speed to the tire-swing when released for recess. I want to have pride in my homeland, but at the same time I'm real big into conspiracy theories and the possibility of the US faking the moon landing is funny and too easy for me to believe. In their eyes, they had to win and I don't doubt that they would have done anything in their power to do so, even if that meant faking it. What does it matter now, though? NASA's getting budget cuts left and right. It's 2010 and I still haven't gotten to live off-world. What was it all for, United States? So with that, I say the Soviets deserve the style points. They had cooler helmets, too.

Where do your beats come from?
I think I might be answering this question wrong, but if you mean literally when we play live, the beats come from an Ableton powered laptop that we've pre-programmed. They include a bunch of drum and percussion sounds that I've collected over the past few years. Most of the ones we use come from the Roland beat station that Markus and I use live. Our live set-up is really just an updated version of what Depeche Mode did in the 80s, except instead of a computer they used a a reel-to-reel in place of a drummer. It's endearing watching them on the 101 documentary explaining why they never had a drummer. Watch it, if you haven't.

What's your songwriting process like?
It's hard to define with one specific process, as it's constantly evolving. If it's not a song I've got mostly written on my own at home beforehand, we almost always we pick a tempo and start with a beat. We like a slow intimate groove in our songs so most of them stay under 100 bpm. Once we've got that built to a decent degree and programmed on the computer, we'll loop it and start to layer on bass and lead synths followed by more live beats and percussion. Other times it's a bass synth, usually arpeggiated, that we start with. After we've had enough free play with the beat and lost our minds listening to loops, we start to build the song using parts that we liked from the jam sesh and develop those more. The vocals usually come last in most cases. There's a lot of preperation and programming that go into making it possible to "jam" in an all electronic band. It's very different than anything we've ever done before.

Where's your favorite place to get inspired?
For writing music, honestly, it's been my current bedroom. I don't know if it's the size of the space or all of the aesthetic pieces hanging on the walls I've collected or been given throughout life, but I've been able to generate more musical output in that room now than I have ever before. It's usually late at night or early in the morning in between jobs when it happens. For all other purposes, riding my bicycles at night with no destination is always an inspiring experience for life in general.

Who are some of your early electronic heroes and why?
It took a while for me to really get into electronic music, but my mom always listened to 80s music in the car with me. Whether or not a lot of that is considered el - Bleach Online

hi. i’m joshua. i told b i would help him with this blog when he started it but well…. i’m lazy. so the fact that i am not being lazy means this band is awesome…
Once apon a time there was this awesome band called “Clap! Clap!“. They had an arsenal of 8 members, and were compared to bands such as The Rapture and The Faint. In 2005, MTVU recognized Clap! Clap! in a nationwide contest, “The Best Band on Campus,” and listed the band amongst the top 10 in the nation. Unfortunately they broke up in 2007. BUT! Like most bands that are way awesome, out of the death of one, others were born…..
One of which is dark disco group known as Missions. The Austin, Tx band is comprised of Josh Mills (ex Clap! Clap! // vocals, synth, percussion), Markus Diffee (percussion, synth), Amber Zook (synth) and Nick Whitfield (drums). Moments of Missions remind me of Passions, early Depeche Mode, & The Big Pink.
If you are in Austin, they have a couple of shows coming up… Oct. 19th – W/ Junior Boys & Circlesquare @ The Mohawk
Nov. 6th Learning Secrets’ Fun Fun Fun Fest Kickoff party @ Beauty Bar - Robot Dance Music

Tom Blackburn aka Tommy Boy has made great videos for acts like CFCF, Gatekeeper, and Telepathe, (which you can check out here). He also helps run the excellent Arawa.fm blog, putting up rare electronic music from the past, present, and future and posts incredible mixes full of music you’ve never heard but really need too. After badgering him for a while, he finally agreed to make VICE a mix, which is as epic and brilliant as anything he’s done before. Read Tommy’s words on the mix, download, and listen below.

When Vice UK asked for a submission, I knew I had to share the sound that can only be found right here in my home state of Texas. I am fortunate to live in a place where so many of my peers are creating the kind of music I love. When most kids are worrying about how the grass is greener elsewhere, these bands are working hard to make where they are where they want to be. This mix is made up of current Texas synth-based projects and covers many genres, from industrial EBM to techno, leftfield disco to electro, deep house to minimal wave and even a little screwgaze for good measure.
I am grateful to all groups who were so kind to contribute to this compilation; special thanks to Klearlight Studios for helping master the final mix as well as producing several of the bands in it. I’d also like to thank Answering Machine Records for their submissions as well as their continued output of quality Texas synth music. I wouldn’t be who I am today if it wasn’t for all my creative friends across this big state.
There is something sacred in the geometry connecting Houston, Austin, and Dallas - this love triangle that we’re all a part of. This mix is a testament to what friends and neighbours are capable of and it’s a fitting time capsule for this time and place. Don’t Mess with Texas.
TOMMYBOY - “THE TEXAS LOVE TRIANGLE MIX”

1. George Quartz - “Coconut”
2. Phantastes - “Flight of Stares”
3. Darktown Strutters - “Silver Bullet”
4. Indian Jewelry - “Same Mistake Man”
5. Corporate Park - “Intimate Precision”
6. //TENSE// - “Versus Man (TX Love Remix 2010)”
7. Seth Nemec - “Count Zero”
8. Jake Schrock - “Trigon”
9. E.R.P. (aka Convextion) - “Frozen Volatiles”
10. DYX - “Lips in the Darkness (feat. Press-On)”
11. Submersible Machines - “Riding Theta Waves”
12. Missions - “Phantasy”
13. Medio Mutante - “Transit (Demo)”
14. MVSCLZ - “Fascination (Across The Nation)”
15. R9 - “Dreamdance”
16. edrupt - “M-U-S-I-K”
17. betdat - “Nex (Radio Edit)”
18. MKF KÜNST - “Venga (TX Love Remix 2010)”
19. Berliner Eins - “Nite Life”
20. Twisted Wires - “Hell”
21. Low Red Center - “Historic Edition”
22. S U R V I V E - “White Clouds”
23. Future Blondes - “NIGHT ANALYSIS (Oppenheimer Analysis “Behind the Shades” RMX)”
24. Psychic Violence - “U is Moon”
25. How I Quit Crack - “Gone Away”
26. xix - “1111(v7)”
Thanks Tommy! - Vice

Due to the sheer large number of members in the now defunct Clap! Clap! (RIP) The world (well, at least Austin) is just going to have to deal with the phrase “formally of clap! Clap!”. The latest incarnation features TWO members of the group (Mike Groener and Louis Lemuz) as well as a killer drummer (Mark Toohey, who was not in Clap! Clap!) The band is Love at 20 and they make a clean type of mathy, indie rock with plenty of skilled falsetto not unlike current U2 opening act Muse. Instead of clapping, dancing and partying like Clap! Clap!- Love at 20 seems more appropriate for reading the Twilight series all the way thru and drinking… alone. Taking memos from Sonic Youth, Catherine Wheel, Stone Roses and Jimmy Eat World, Love at 20 has produced a very slick sounding full-length record titled Time to Begin, which hits shelves early November. Lyrically the single for the track So Bad is theatrical, amorous and shows a slice of life at a dive bar. It is out now and features a remix from ANOTHER post Clap! Clap! band we’ve previously told you about called Missions. The blending of the two distinctly different yet uniformly dark projects is just what the doctor ordered. - Party Ends

Austinites Missions just handed us their new track “Wavelength” — a dark, post-dance track which hints at Pictureplane, but perhaps a whole lot more “chill” and a bit more serious. But more importantly, the distortion and synth and filtered vox are in all the right places. Very, very promising…

Missions – “Wavelength”

And then there is straight up club — this no nonsense remix resurrects some dark 80’s melodies. Something kinda Gary Numan about this remix:

Love at 20 – “So Bad” (Missions Club Mix) - Big Stereo

Missions placed 2nd in the Deli's Best of Austin 2009 poll. - The Deli Austin

When it comes to dance parties, local band, Missions (think a space odyssey), made up of Josh Mills, Markus Diffee (Markus with a K), and Amber Zook, is on the forefront of the indie scene, bringing in a crowd with their much-lauded Electronic Body Movement (EBM) music. Both Learning Secrets and Knuckle Rumbler have enlisted this talented trio to keep their events fresh. Sometimes thought of as DJs, because they occasionally remix unexpected songs like Enya’s “Sail Away” and use unusual instrumentation and gear, Mills explains, “While we do both, we are first and foremost a band. When we perform live, we all play actual instruments and our own original songs.” The indie dance scene has been garnering attention around town as of late, but Mills, formerly of Clap!Clap!, is hesitant to label it a completely new development. He has been watching electronic dance music gain popularity since he moved here in 2002. He says, “I was immediately fascinated by local bands like The Octopus Project, Zom-Zoms, and The Rise. Now, there are tons of really amazing bands like Survive, Silent Diane, and Phantastes, using purely synthesizers and drum machines.” And he doesn’t view the rise in electronic music as a mere trend, he ties it to developments in technology and the direction our society is heading, explaining, “I feel that music can only progress so far using only guitar, bass guitar, and drums. Throwing in a keyboard or two will take you a bit further, but you’re still doing what everyone else has already done.” And, not all of Missions’ songs are danceable. Mills explains, “The songs are intentionally presented to invoke a mood or feeling, so sometimes it can be hard to remember to dance when you’re concentrating or honing in on that mood. At least, that’s how I rationalize it when I don’t see anyone dancing.” - Tribeza Magazine

When it comes to dance parties, local band, Missions (think a space odyssey), made up of Josh Mills, Markus Diffee (Markus with a K), and Amber Zook, is on the forefront of the indie scene, bringing in a crowd with their much-lauded Electronic Body Movement (EBM) music. Both Learning Secrets and Knuckle Rumbler have enlisted this talented trio to keep their events fresh. Sometimes thought of as DJs, because they occasionally remix unexpected songs like Enya’s “Sail Away” and use unusual instrumentation and gear, Mills explains, “While we do both, we are first and foremost a band. When we perform live, we all play actual instruments and our own original songs.” The indie dance scene has been garnering attention around town as of late, but Mills, formerly of Clap!Clap!, is hesitant to label it a completely new development. He has been watching electronic dance music gain popularity since he moved here in 2002. He says, “I was immediately fascinated by local bands like The Octopus Project, Zom-Zoms, and The Rise. Now, there are tons of really amazing bands like Survive, Silent Diane, and Phantastes, using purely synthesizers and drum machines.” And he doesn’t view the rise in electronic music as a mere trend, he ties it to developments in technology and the direction our society is heading, explaining, “I feel that music can only progress so far using only guitar, bass guitar, and drums. Throwing in a keyboard or two will take you a bit further, but you’re still doing what everyone else has already done.” And, not all of Missions’ songs are danceable. Mills explains, “The songs are intentionally presented to invoke a mood or feeling, so sometimes it can be hard to remember to dance when you’re concentrating or honing in on that mood. At least, that’s how I rationalize it when I don’t see anyone dancing.” - Tribeza Magazine