Sophistic Resistance

Combining beach life with shopping precinct values, mapping strained spatial divisions between working class Australian pubs and upwardly mobile clubs for 20-somethings in polo shirts with upturned collars, Adelaide suburb Glenelg is not the place I would expect to find minimal techno dotting the record store shelves. Nevertheless, there I was on the day of Christmas Eve 2005, ploughing through second-hand CD racks on the search for the ultimate bargain. After an eternity of luckless drilling, Robert Hood’s 2002 album Point Blank glared balefully at me from the morass, its monochrome austerity the gateway for the entrained eye/ear.

Hood’s history is unimpeachable. Minister For Information for the primary ‘second wave of Detroit’ techno outfit Underground Resistance, Hood worked on their X-101, X-102 and X-103 series of concept 12” singles before internal dissension cracked the UR hull, Hood jumping ship with founder member Jeff Mills to work on the Waveform Transmissions series for Mills’ Axis label. Hood’s solo recordings for the Tresor label, alongside his own M-Plant imprint, are some of the bedrocks of minimal techno, alongside other ‘second wave of Detroit’ producers like Richie Hawtin/Plastikman.