The Essential… Robert Hood

10: ROBERT HOOD
OMEGA
(M-PLANT, 2010)

The new album takes the Heston-starring The Omega Man as inspiration, and true to form it’s no mere collection of DJ tools. Each track evokes the grim desolation of the film, and manages to work on the floor as much as the home. ‘Think Fast’ builds electrical impulses against a soft string drone, whilst ‘The Plague (Cleansing Maneuvers)’ is a beatless synth excursion filled with jumpy tension. ‘The Workers of Iniquity’ strips everything down further to an almost Raster-like clipped beat, interrupted with echoed hits. Hood once again manages to walk his unique path with just enough variation to keep it interesting and enough vision and inspiration to move techno, like his erstwhile UR companions Mills and Banks, into a whole new dimension.

Ruaridh Law

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Features, Lists, The Essential highlight and tagged with Robert Hood, The Essential..., Underground Resistance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Jason

Fantastic stuff – a great summary of nearly 20 years of one man's work – really enjoyed the read and the journey through his music.
Kia

Hmmm… I agreed until the Klock remix and 'Superman' release were identified as 'Essential'. They're not. If any number of musicians had released them they'd be essential parts of their repertoire but not when you consider Hood's output throughout the years. There are simply much better productions. With those two examples in mind, it's such a relief to hear the latest 'Omega' LP which is thankfully a return to form… as it happens it was already playing through my speakers!
Bugz

lacking some Floorplant/Drama material
Bugz

Great artist, retrospective lacking some Floorplan/Drama material imo
Bugz

Great artist, retrospective lacking some Floorplan/Duet material imo
Fran

Actually, ‘Range’ from the Superman release, has all the hallmarks of a future classic. I think it deserves a place here. Nice to see more recent material getting some room among the more obvious classics from ‘back in the day’
RAW

quality roundup and entertaining read!

I thought I knew my onions as far as Hood went but there's a couple of bits here I'm gonna have to track down and check out now…
http://www.factmag.com/2010/07/02/fact-the-week-that-was-12/ FACT: the week that was – FACT magazine: music and art

[...] This week on the FACT site we took time to interview enigmatic dream-pop duo jj, gave an early track-by-track verdict of the hugely anticipated debut album from Salem, and presented our guide to the best records of a minimal techno legend in The Essential…Robert Hood. [...]
Langer

What about The Pace? surely his best dancefloor moment. Plus there is so much more great material missed.
http://www.factmag.com/2010/07/26/fact-mix-170-robert-hood/ FACT mix 170: Robert Hood – FACT magazine: music and art

[...] Point Blank and Wire To Wire. For a more detailed insight into Hood’s discography, check out The Essential..Robert Hood by Ruaridh [...]
RuaridhTVO

Being limited to 10 items means inevitably lots of things get missed, plus it’s a highly subjective exercise innit? Your mileage may vary, etc

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