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FACT’s The Essential… series returns for 2010, with a ten record primer to one of the all-time great techno musicians, Robert Hood, by Ruaridh ‘The Village Orchestra’ Law.
One of the founding members of Detroit’s Underground Resistance movement, Robert Hood has become one of the most influential and important figures in techno. Eschewing the crossover releases and high press presence of his contemporaries, he’s been content to distill the essence of his sound over 19 years of tireless exploration of purity.
Despite his presence in UR, and his collaborations with Mills as H&M, X101, etc, this guide is limited to his own solo releases.
01: THE VISION
WAVEFORM TRANSMISSION VOL. 2
(TRESOR 17, 1993)
Simultaneously with his time in a nascent UR, Hood had set up the Hardwax label to release noisy, fast, unrefined-sounding techno, both solo and with Claude Young. Although the tracks on this Tresor release aren’t directly lifted from the Hardwax records, or the Vision 12” released on UR, the sound is similar – heavy, atonal DJ workouts with plenty of rattling percussion and relatively high BPMs. As the ‘non Mills’ chapter of the Waveform Transmission series, it’s often overlooked in favour of the two classic Mills albums that bookend it, but there’s still lots to appreciate today – ‘The Protector’ sets a pattern for future Hood tracks with an insistent whistle pulse and Berlin stab whilst ‘Projectile Darts’ sets UR style drums against two interlocked riffs.
