Robert Hood is an American Techno DJ and producer.  A founding member of the influential Underground Resistance collective, Hood went onto become one of the founding fathers of Minimal Techno, creating – along with Daniel Bell – a blueprint for the genre before it even existed.

Early Years: 1990 to 1999

Robert Hood’s entrance into Techno sits somewhere between the emergence of the original Detroit Techno DJs such as Derrick May and Juan Atkins, and the ‘Second Wave’ of Carl Craig et al. 

Hood started out as a founding member of the influential and activist Techno collective Underground Resistance, along with Mad Mike Banks and Jeff Mills.  Underground Resistance was intended to breathe new life into a Detroit scene which was perceived by some as edging too close to the mainstream. 

Hood left Detroit (and Underground Resistance) for New York in 1992 along with fellow Underground Resistance member Mills, where the two started to work together under the alias X-103, both releasing material on Mills’ new Axis label.

Hood increasingly focused on his solo work and his breakthrough came two years later with the genre defining track 'Minus' (Tresor 1994). ‘Minus’ created an ahead-of-its-time blueprint for Minimal Techno.  A stark contrast to the increasingly busy percussive sound contemporary that mid-1990's Techno was evolving, ‘Minus’ strips down to the basics, and then some, leaving only a gently thudding kick drum and an incessantly hypnotic electro synth arpeggio.

The same year Hood released the influential album 'Minimal Nation' (Axis 1994). Hood subsequently left New York and started DJing extensively across the globe, especially in Europe where his music was reaching appreciative audiences through releases on legendary German Techno label Tresor.

Later Years: 2000 to present

In 2000 Robert Hood released ‘Nighttime World Volume 2’ (M-Plant 2000) which showcased a more diverse range of musical influences than much of his previous work. 

The album also showed a stronger Soul influence, something which Hood has gone on record as being key to his music.

Though Hood’s popularity had boomed in the late 1990’s, it was during the 2000’s that his influence became increasingly recognized – along with fellow minimal pioneer Daniel Bell – by artists such as Richie Hawtin and Ricardo Villalobos as they went about driving the new wave of Minimal Techno that has arguably become the most active strand of contemporary Techno music.

Robert Hood, along with Daniel Bell, laid the foundations for Minimal Techno long before the genre even came into being.  His production ethos was a reaction to much of the musical direction that Techno was taking and his forward looking vision has acted as a template for reinvention not just for Minimal Techno DJs and producers, but for Techno as a whole.

Robert Hood’s father was a jazz musician, playing piano, trumpet and drums, and his mother was in an R’n’B group.  Hood holds his father’s on the cover of ‘Nighttime World Volume 2’.