Robert Hood Fabric 39 Review

Robert Hood has little to do with Nottingham’s favourite thief Robin Hood, however in terms of legendary status they’re probably on par; well they are if you talk to techno aficionados. One of the founding members of Detroit’s Underground Resistance along with the alien like Jeff Mills and Mad Mike Banks, Robert Hood has been there from the beginning shaping techno into what it is today. Many credit his seminal 1993 release ‘Minimal Nation’ as a pivotal point in techno, laying the blueprint for many to follow and build on. So in short Robert Hood = Legend and unlike Robin Hood, we know he exists.

For Fabric 39, Robert Hood doesn’t hang about, he rifles through 32 tracks with straight up “balls to the wall” techno from the get go. None of this slow building plod, Robert Hood starts as he means to go on… rude, obnoxious and in your face making it quite a refreshing change to the usual polite inoffensive bleeps we’ve become so accustomed to. The CD builds through a combination of Detroit sounding pads and hypnotic loops before it crescendos into Marco Lenzi’s Taboo firing the mix into a frenzy of funk fuelled disco and carnival influenced techno, enough to make even the most discerning techno crusty wiggle like they’re in Rio.

Robert Hood wanted this mix to take the listener on a trip, which I can empathise with, if this trip were on Tom Hank's Castaway raft and Wilson the ball floated away a long time ago. Hood carries you to the crest of every wave through his trademark stripped back loops such as Element 23, UK Gold’s Agent Wood and Pacou’s All It Takes before crashing down into relentless beats and symbol crashes through Scorp's New Energy and John Thomas' Pulp Funktion 2. The CD manoeuvres up and over many waves to shore up on a Hood classic, The Greatest Dancer showing us his version of disco funk.

This CD is relentless, its pumped up on speed and the hypnotic loops suck you right in. The variety in which Hood moves through genres of techno is nothing short of amazing. OK there are some shaky mixes, but it just adds to the rawness and rudeness of this mix. This is techno the Robert Hood way and it is excellent, unpretentious and raw. 9/10

Buy Robert Hood - Fabric 39


Release: fabricfirst Members: 03/03/08 UK/R.O.W. Retail: 17/03/08 USA: 04/14/08
Tracklisting
01. Monobox - Silicone Fingers – Logistic
02. Element 9
03. Robert Hood – Who Taught You Math – Peacefrog
04. Pacou – X-Factor – Cache
05. Robert Hood – Strobe Light – Music Man/N.E.W.S.
06. Marco Lenzi – Taboo – Molecular
07. Joris Voorn – Fever [Rephrased] – Keynote
08. Fab G – Bust The Vibes [Real Disco Mix] – Grand Prix
09. Dan March – Sand Dune – Meta
10. Element 3
11. Diego – Mind Detergent [Robert Hood Remix] – Kanzleramt
12. Jeff Mills – Skin Deep – Axis
13. Robert Hood – School – Music Man/N.E.W.S.
14. Element 23
15. John Thomas – Mr. Funk – Logistic
16. DJ Skull – Informant – Hypnotic Tones
17. Scorp – One Side – Music Man/N.E.W.S.
18. Pacou – All It Takes – Cache
19. Phase – Mass – N.E.W.S.
20. UK Gold – Agent Wood [Adam Beyer Remix] – New Records
21. Solid Decay – Legalize! - Lessismore
22. Element 7
23. Robert Hood – Side Effect – Music Man/N.E.W.S.
24. Mion- Drop The Filter – Music Man/N.E.W.S.
25. Scorp – New Energy – Music Man/N.E.W.S.
26. UK Gold – Agent Wood [Original Mix] – New Records
27. Robert Hood – Still Here [Los Hermanos Remix] – Music Man/N.E.W.S
28. John Thomas – Pulp Funktion 2 – Logistic
29. Robert Hood – The Greatest Dancer – M-Plant
30. Low Life – Exclamation - Mosaic
31. Robert Hood – And Then We Planned Our Escape – Music Man/N.E.W.S.
32. Element 12