Robert Hood

Often regarded as a founding father of minimal techno, Robert Hood is a DJ and producer born and bred in Detroit, Michigan. The techno legend wasn’t always known as Robert Hood, he was initially performing under the name of Robert Noise and before he was a techno icon, he was a hip hop star. “Robert Noise was what I went by… and that came from the art of noise and sort of from the Bomb Squad as well, the production team for Public Enemy (hip hop group founded by Chuck D and Flavor Flav)” (Red Bull Music Academy Interview).

In his interview with the Red Bull Music Academy, Hood discusses his first encounters with electronic music – he discusses the radio show “The Electric Crazy People” hosted by Derek May. When asked what the show sounded like Hood describes it as “progressive, acid, it sounded crazy, it was just so forward-thinking… it just sounded other-worldy.” After listening to this music for the first time, which at the time didn’t even have a genre name, Hood became obsessed with wanting to learn how to make it and so he essentially taught himself.

Hood was a part of the techno collective Underground Resistance which was founded in collaboration with Jeff Mills and ‘Mad’ Mike Banks. The group was part of a larger movement speaking out on the political, social and economic state of the U.S. post Reagan-era. Underground Resistance served as a means to promote awareness and facilitate a shift in political authority. The group’s mission was targeted mainly at lower-income African Americans with the goal of inspiring young black men to get themselves out of the ongoing cycle of poverty.

After his time with Underground Resistance, Hood decided to leave the group in 1992 to pursue and develop his own music career further. Him and fellow ex-UR member Jeff Mills went on to release music together as X-103 and H&M. Hood went on to establish his very own label M-Plant which was home to mainly minimal techno and saw the release of his first album Minimal Nation. The album went on to become one of the biggest inspirations for future minimal techno producers.

In the last decade, Hood released two albums under his alias Floorplan who produces disco and gospel leaning house music. Hood signed to the label Rekids in late 2020 for the release of his EP “Nothing Stops Detroit” as well as the album “Mirror Man.”