Robert Hood's installment of the long-running DJ-Kicks series offers no unexpected detours or twists -- it's simply 72 minutes of steady, alert techno chugging along like a freight train.
Hood lets each track play for about three minutes before smoothly blending it into the next one, and there are no jarring transitions or overdriven effects, just plenty of precise EQ'ing and sweeps. That said, it's still a solid, highly enjoyable mix.
Hood's mixing skills are flawless, and there's enough of a balance between more functional passages, where the beats just bang along with a minimal note sequence on top, and moments where the drama is elevated a bit via vocal samples or bigger melodies, such as the neon synth sequence that pops up halfway through
Hood's own "Hall of Mirrors." One thing to note is that this a
Robert Hood mix and not a
Floorplan mix. There are no overt references to
Hood's devout Christian faith here, and barely anything resembling gospel, soul, or disco, apart from the looped vocal samples on
Adrian Hour's "Make You Feel Good." While
Hood is responsible for roughly a third of the tracks, most of the rest are by European producers, including Berghain favorites such as
Truncate and
Marcel Fengler, in addition to U.K. techno mainstays like Slam and
Mark Broom. Still, it's true to
Hood's pioneering vision of minimal techno, which focuses on stripped-down, funky machine rhythms, with the overriding goal being to make the crowd move.
Hood's DJ-Kicks isn't quite as wild or personality-driven as his Fabric 39 mix from a decade earlier, but it's undeniably focused, and it clearly reaches its intended goal. ~ Paul Simpson