Mirror Man

On his tenth studio album (depending on how you count them) and showing no sign of slowing down, minimal techno master Robert Hood delivers one of his most aggressive sets to date. Perhaps his 2018 DJ-Kicks mix -- on which he put together, atypically for him, a set of banging big-room techno -- has rubbed off on him, because this is one of his most maximal albums ever. Its still minimal (as in Hoods conception of minimal, that is; its constructed from a minimum of discrete elements) but the palette is darker, and the sounds thicker, fuller, and more aggressive. While the best of Hoods work tends, even in its hardest moments, toward a warm, optimistic bent, this is the Detroit of RoboCop. The beatless Through a Looking Glass Darkly opens the album with a near-orchestral feel, ominous synth swells and booming tympani creating a sinister atmosphere that fades away to ghostly howling. Fear Not is almost EBM, with blaring synth stabs, relentless grinding bass, pummeling kicks, and a siren-like vocal sample that repeats throughout. The ominous, thudding Falling Apart is underpinned by an ominous drone and interspersed with whistling and spectral synth lines. Run Bobby, Run grows in intensity, with metallic stabs gradually becoming a rhythmic pounding. On the towering A System of Mirrors, the albums centerpiece, cascading chords mingle with a militaristic drum tattoo. Hood really only brings back the funk with Face in the Water, the sole warm and positive-sounding track. The record is also punctuated by chilly ambient interludes like the slow, eerie, almost beatless Black Mirror, which nicely catches the vibe of its TV namesake, while the brief but harrowing A Shattered Image sounds like a muffled transmission coming through from a dark, forbidden dimension. This is a very good record, with some great dancefloor workouts that are going to sound immense on a big rig, but the abrupt shifts in style mean its much less cohesive than some of Hoods others. That said, its a huge, aggressive album that is truly fitting for the dystopian times it was recorded in. ~ John D. Buchanan