ROBERT HOOD Vinilo y CD

Review: ** FLOORPLAN REPRESS ** It's fair to say that this was one of the best Robert Hood moments in a while! Just two tracks but boy do they hit hard - "Altered Ego" is more brakey than the usual Hood bombs but he's kept the inimitable chords, all wailing and weaving their way through the beat. The real heat is on the flip however, where the nostalgic, rave-infused piano keys of "Confess" make for a certified classic! Is it Hood who influenced Shed on this sort of beat or the other way around? Who cares, it's bloody amazing!

Review: M-Plant boss Robert Hood rounds out another prolific year with one final Floorplan 12" featuring two tracks that seems to represent the project's nascent beginnings and where it's at now. "Phobia" could almost be an off cut from Paradise, the album Hood released as Floorplan earlier this year, featuring many of the sonic hallmarks that made it so memorable. Meanwhile "Glory B" jackhammers along with a sampled preacher for company in a fashion similar to early Floorplan gem "Funky Souls" though admittedly the production values are a lot more refined. Sandwiched in-between is a typically booming Ben Sims remix of Paradise album cut "Higher!" which is set to feature on the producer's forthcoming mix CD for Fabric,

Review: ** FLOORPLAN REPRESS ** Not content with releasing one of this year's best techno albums under his own name, Detroit producer Robert Hood turns his focus to his Floorplan alter ego. While it may not enjoy the same profile as Hood side-projects like The Vision and Monobox, it does provide an alternative to his repetitive metallic techno. Indeed, the title track is a jacking house workout centred on a disco loop and the chugging train sounds sampled so memorably on Telex's 'Moscow Disko'. 'Wall to Wall' is more in keeping with Hood's trademark techno, but here too, the harsh snares and ominous, prowling bassline are offset by a filtered disco groove.

Review: British techno veterans Jonas Stone and Oliver Way have pulled off something of a coup here, not only by persuading Robert Hood to appear on their EPM Music imprint, but also by including a track from the Detroit legend's Floorplan alias (amazingly, Hood has previously kept the two projects entirely separate). Naturally, both tracks hit home hard. "Shaker" is prime Hood - an intoxicating, no-holds-barred techno looper built around a killer groove, foreboding chords and occasional vocal samples. On the Floorplan side, Hood reaches for the gospel organs, filtering and looping them up over a thunderous kick drum and typically relentless ride cymbals. As usual with Hood Floorplan material, there's enough soul in the machines to impress even the pickiest techno buyer.

Review: What a coming together this is - Detroit pioneer Robert Hood and European techno powerhouse Rekids on one blistering record. The title track is as powerful and unrelenting as the name suggests, with bass fired from a machine gun under militant snare rolls and sweeping filters adding to the waves of techno washing over you repeatedly. '7 Mile Dog' is a little more freeform, with synths riding up and down the mix but more high pressure drum work and coarse snares locking you down. 'Ignite A War' is the sort of expertly reduced minimal that Robert Hood is best known for and lastly, 'The Cure' builds a big old wall of techno designed purely for warehouse detonation.

Review: The unstoppable techno juggernaut himself, Robert Hood is back on Tresor with some of that minimal machine music he basically defined back in the 90s. "Master Builder" is a masterclass in proper minimal techno, using a thrifty set of tools to make for utterly immersive, time-slipping techno. The subtly shifted "Sandman Option" mix of the track moves the position of the looping bleeps to create a different groove around the steadfast kick - juggling the two could be a lot of fun for creative DJs. Providing a different flavour on the flip, "Quartz" brings some bolder synth strokes into the mix, winding up with the quintessential Detroit track.

Review: Any new Robert Hood single is cause for celebration, but particularly when the release in question contains cuts as strong as this one. A-side "Reflector" is loopy and forthright, with Hood using swirling effects and subtle manipulations of a repetitive, big room-ready riff to increase intensity throughout. It's perhaps a little different from his usual heavy, stripped-back fare, but that's no bad thing. In contrast, flipside "Rotate" is classic Hood style minimalism, with warped acid lines, twisted bass and layered percussion creating a driving, mind-altering late night mood. There are slivers of melody, too, but these are sporadic and subdued in comparison to the rest of the Motor City's maestro's musical elements.

Review: Following last year's full-length outing on Dekmantel, Robert Hood returns to his long-running M Plant label with a typically forthright three-tracker. Given that he's not released anything on the imprint under his given name since 2014, it feels like a significant release. Opener "Low Life" is certainly a slammer in the legendary producer's typical style, with a creepy, mind-altering organ line looping away over bombastic beats and a rumbling, sub-heavy bassline. "Go" is more tribal in feel despite the presence of a bleeping synth motif, with Hood adding and removing different percussive elements throughout to keep excitement high. As for flipside "Clocks", it's dirty, druggy, alien sounding and insanely weighty.

Review: Hot on the heels of Detroit legend Robert Hood's first EP for Dekmantel, Paradygm Shift, comes this second volume of typically forthright techno cuts. Opener "Master Jack" is hypnotic and heavy, with spacey synth loops and starburst electronics riding a thumping bassline and relentless rhythm track (think fizzing cymbals, snappy drum machine handclaps, colossal kick drums etc). "Magnet" is altogether deeper affair, but no less devastating. Hood is a master at wringing maximum dancefloor effectiveness out of the least number of intertwined elements, and here works wonders with little more than stomping drums, metallic electronics, and some well-placed special effects.

Review: The recruitment of Robert Hood is a sign of Dekmantel's growing stature as a label. The Detroit legend has agreed to release a trio of EPs and an album under the Paradigm Shift banner, a project title designed to reflect the producer's desire to see great change within dance music. This first EP is classic Hood, with A-side "Form" - all effects-laden drums, looped-up textures, hissing cymbals and cacophonous kick-drums - sounding like no-one else. Flipside "Lockers" follows a similar script, though there's a little more house-influenced funk to the relentless beats, while Hood's use of starburst riffs and classic Motor City electronics adds a sense of far-sighted adventure.

Review: The last time Robert Hood referenced the number 11 was the beatless track "The Age Of Eleven", appearing towards the end of his Wire To Wire album released ten years ago on the all encompassing Peacefrog Records. That, however, is where the similarities to this EP, Eleven, on Hood's own M-Plant, end. Starting with the B-side, the chimes of "Alarm" sound similar to Luke Slater's "Bell Blocker", and a lot of what else can be heard that legendary album The Messenger. But again it's the A-side, which homes the title track, that provides another production where the city of Detroit literally resonates within the music, painting visual imagery of factories and assembly lines done in a way that instantly make you think: Robert Hood.

Review: One of the more driving cuts from Robert Hood's epic Motor: Nighttime World 3 from last year, "Drive (The Age Of Automation)" finds itself getting a welcome slice of wax all to itself on this release. Pressed up loud, the original is about as Detroit as you can get, where a moody motorik bassline gives way to suitably sci-fi synths, combining a musical take on Detroit's automotive history with a Blade Runner aesthetic. Token artist Phase obviously revels in the opportunity to provide two brilliant reworks of the track; the "Nocturnal Mix", which isolates the original's bass stabs and incorporates them into a rolling juggernaut rhythm tailor made for the warehouse, while the "C-Box Mix" opts to keep the melodic elements but pare them back with the producer's trademark sharpness.

Review: Torque One provides an advance opportunity to hear how Robert Hood plans to tackle the conceptual themes at play in Motor: Nighttime World 3, the Detroit minimalist machine funk exponent's long overdue third instalment of the Nighttime World album series. Set to revolve around "the life, history and future of Detroit's motor industry and its workforce, set against a backdrop of decay, hope and re-birth" Hood might well be opting for a softer, more subtle approach than the grinding, relentless style he's refined in recent years on the basis of the two tracks here. The title track sets the shuffling rhythms deeper in the mix, allowing the brooding tone to dominate as the dubby textural qualities bubble away, while "Movement" combines bristling experimentalism with restrained orchestral strings.

Review: Detroit techno favourite Robert Hood is set to release an intriguing concept album this summer. As a precursor to the release, his own M Plant imprint are releasing two of its tracks as a taster of the full length.

The forthcoming Omega is a concept album based on the 1971 classic science fiction film, The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston. The film itself derived from Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend which incidentally has also seen a Hollywood film adaptation spring from it. Hood's Omega however, is not meant to be an exact soundtrack that runs alongside the 1971 film. Instead, it is Hood's musical take on the film. He watched the film growing up and now draws inspiration from the lessons that it teaches.

"Alpha" and "Omega (End Times)" hint at what we can expect from this summer's release. "Alpha" is a thick wad of driving techno. It is relentless to the last, with an epic feel created by sustained synthesisers and some stabbing basslines. Cranking breaks and quick percussion patterns add momentum and power to this breathless piece of classic Robert Hood techno. Next up is "Omega (End Times)" which assumes a darker, more ominous quality. Still one for the clubs, this track contains more of a moody and sinister atmosphere. The crunching basslines are still there and when the beat comes in it is as steady and as powerful as the A side. Its tempo shifts are more subtle too, making this an all together much more brooding affair.

From knowing the pretence of the forthcoming full length and by only hearing these two tracks, the wait for Omega will seem unbearable now. A tight release meant to wet our appetites has gone and done exactly what it was meant to.

Review: Robert Hood's "Hoodmusic 3", out on Music Man, has support from Surgeon, Ben Sims, Mark Broom, Laurent Garnier and many more.

Review: Original Underground Resistance member Robert Hood is a true icon in techno music, with releases on legendary imprints such as Tresor, Axis, Peacefrog, Logistic and his own label M-Plant. Hoodmusic 2 is the follow up to his 2005 debut on Music Man. 'Still Hear' is a typical Hood styled techno burner, oldschool minimal so to speak. We are very proud to be able to offer a remix by the legendary Los Hermanos on the B-side. 'School' might be the funkiest minimal techno cut we heard in years, pure dancefloor material! Wicked!!

Review: The flurry of activity surrounding M Plant's 20th anniversary celebrations shows no sign of abating as we reach the midway point of the year, with the latest offering from Robert Hood a rare revisitation of his Monobox alias. You have to peel through eleven years worth of Hood releases to get to the last time the Detroit icon used the Monobox alias (the Molecule EP on French label Logistics for the fact checkers out there) but this pair of new productions under the guise demonstrate he's lost none of his intentions to approach "minimalism from an alien, futuristic perspective". The deep and melodious "Film" appears here ahead of it's high profile presence in Marcel Dettmann's upcoming Fabric mix and it's a nice complement to the tougher machine funk of "Rectangle".

Review: Ben Sims' Machine mix is loaded with exclusive gems which get a full-fat airing on this series of samplers. After a strong first round, another four crucial cuts from the heavyweight end of Sims' contact list get packed onto one highly desirable 12". First up is Berlin mainstay Steffi, who threads a hypnotic array of rhythmic elements together into the deep but energising "Gentle Uplift". Jeroen Search then edges the record a little further into the depths with the loopy, sonar bleep immersion of "Ostinato Pattern." Robert Hood's snarling, muscular "Gun Talk" gets the edit treatment from Sims himself, and then the record rounds off with the pumping stabs and irrepressible funk of ROD's "Embase".

Review: 'Tephra' remixed, updated and stripped down by Robert Hood in a spectacular minimal fashion and the techno dance anthem 'Hagia Triada' on this EP.