A touch of Detroit comes to Fabric on March 3 when the godfather of minimal, Robert Hood, takes to the decks for the latest installment of the London club’s eponymous mix series. Raised primarily on Motown in Detroit, Robert’s family was enveloped in music: his mother recorded a 45” locally, his uncle managed jazz and R&B bands and his father was a jazz musician. Robert followed his father’s footsteps at a young age, picking up trumpet in the school band. But it wasn’t long before he swapped the trumpet for vinyl and started recording for himself. One of his demos made it into the hands of Mike Banks, who along with Jeff Mills took Robert on board as an MC for two tracks on a compilation they were putting together. As Robert’s productions grew stronger, the Underground Resistance crew formed, and Robert found his place as a seminal member. Mills and Robert also set up Axis, releasing. Robert’s ground-shattering Minimal Nation album. Shortly after, Robert went it alone, and in an entirely different direction, with M-Plant in 1994.
“M-Plant kind of borrowed from the sound I was using from Axis and really expanded on that sound,” says Robert. “I had developed this grey area sound – what I mean by that is that in Detroit, even when the sun is out, there’s something in the atmosphere. The sky has a grey haze over it. It’s got to be something from the industrial factories there. I’d never really heard a sound like that before and it came from a Roland Juno – it was a chord sound that really went along with my depiction of what Detroit was at that time. A lot of buildings were abandoned and there was a lot of lifelessness in the city, especially downtown. The M-Plant, in minimalism, kind of reflected that. I remember thinking of Detroit like a museum. You know, like a work of art standing still, suspended in time.”
And how does the visionary behind Minimal Nation feel about the upsurge of minimal these days, 14 years later? “These days I am focussed purely on minimalism and really embracing minimalism, because it’s taken on a life of its own. It’s now a music style separate from techno. I would never have imagined that it would take this direction. I didn’t see that one coming!”
So what does he have planned for Fabric 39? “A set from Fabric is the only way I want to go. This mix has to be about the club. I’d like it to be dancefloor orientated and to take the listener on a trip. Any project I do, I like to read like a book. I like it to tell a story, you know? Not to just be random songs or tracks. I t has to have continuity to take you on a ride. It should have a concept and be able to translate and read as such. The DJ mix will be enhanced with live elements added to the mix. The live elements are just tracks or patterns, rhythm patterns that will be exclusive to the CD.” Tracks come from the likes of Monobox, Joris Voorn, Dan March, Jeff Mills, and Element 23.
Fabric 39 is out on March 3. Visit www.fabriclondon.com
