VA - Dj-kicks: Robert Hood LP 2018

It's hard to talk about techno without Robert Hood. The Motor City mainstay was a founding member of the pivotal Underground Resistance with Mad Mike Banks and Jeff Mills, and then went on to lay down a blueprint for minimal techno which continues to make an impact to this day. As Floorplan, of course, he veers into more funky and melodic house and techno, often with a gospel overtone that lead to rapturous receptions on dance floors around the world. But the techno he makes as Robert Hood is what he is best known for. It has come on his own M Plant label, as well as vital outlets like Tresor, Peacefrog and Dekmantel, where 2017's Paradygm Shift album proved that, 25 years after first starting out, he is still a force unto himself. The record was a return to the roots of his definitive Minimal Nation LP in 1994, and was filled with the sort of expert melodic loops, scintillating drums and hypnotic sense of repetition that only a few can mastermaking such simple yet effective music is a skill that Hood has made all his own.