Robert Hood - Lazy!!

Finally got some time to report on the weekend. I've thought about this carefully as I didn't want to come out with a knee jerk reaction.

Robert Hood played the last 2 hours at Pressure on Friday night and to be frank he was poor. Dissapointing to say the least. I'm not sure what I expected from his track selection but he seemed to be trying to play harder than he would have liked (to fit in with the other DJ's :?: ), but that was nothing compared to his mixing.

Does he have a reputation for poor mixing because I've never heard someone put so little effort in. He would just let one tune play almost out and then cut straight over to the next tune. This happened for about 90% of his mixes. He didn't even cut across at a point in the tunes that fitted, and very often completely lost the flow.

It almost ruined what had been up to then a cracking night.

Phil Keiran was on when we got in and he was solid. Good time of night for him to be on as well.

Technasia stole the night with their live show though. They built it superbly ending the first part of the act with a live vocal number then kicking theings off straight away again and building it back up. By the time they brought in Acid Storm the place was going mental.

And I couldn't have imagined the big gong they were using would have fited in so well :D

Odd. I know someone who went to that night and he said that Hood was brillant and Technasia were crap.

I've seen Hood twice this year, both times he was awesome, his mixing spot on, track selection that left me wondering where the f.uck his music was coming from. He is playing very fast these days though, about 150bpm or so...but unlike others who play at that speed, he's still playing his trademark minimal funk sound rather than hard techno loopism. He's on top of his game at the moment, just brilliant. His releases are killer too, got his Monobox LP on Logistic and it's well good, as is his "Point Blank"on Peacefrog.

I saw hood at lost have got a mix cd of his, At lost he was very good imo and mixing seemed fine, he even dropped a bit of a hip hop tune at one point and it worked fine. His mix cd is well mixed and is good, though not the most amazing mix I've ever heard, but still good, competent mixing and hius typical detroit minimal sounds. He seems to pace things up a lot in his dj sets which surprises me as his productions I have are often a lot slower.

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Originally Posted by T

His mix cd is well mixed and is good, though not the most amazing mix I've ever heard, but still good, competent mixing and hius typical detroit minimal sounds. He seems to pace things up a lot in his dj sets which surprises me as his productions I have are often a lot slower.

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I was actually pretty disappointed in his mix CD...but Hood is the type of DJ/musician who's work really needs to be heard on a big system. It is so minimal it needs that power behind it. He has such an amazing understanding of dynamics. Playing as fast as he does now is odd, you'd never think that music would work that well at that speed, but it does. I was at that Lost party at Easter and it was amazing...just brilliant in fact. I also was at Atomic Jam a few weeks before, where he was great too.

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Originally Posted by death on a stick

Odd. I know someone who went to that night and he said that Hood was brillant and Technasia were crap.

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I spoke to a few folk both inside towards the end and outside afterwards just to check that it wasn't just me, and got the same opinion from others.

I can understand that Technasia may not have been everyone's cup of tea and they certainly surprised me with how tough their set was but I'm really keen on their style right now and I thought it was good to see a techno act on stage with a bit of energy instead of just a couple of anoraks hiding behind mountains of equipment twiddling nobs anally.

I stick by my original reaction to Robert Hood though. But after reading what others say about sets they've heard it sounds like his track selection wasn't unusual for him. He did keep the tempo right up although I wouldn't say it was 150bpm. I found his tracks interesting. Very tough, but as was said before there was a definate funkier edge through a lot of them. His mixing was effortless though, and I mean that in a bad way :lol:

that greatest dancer track = :(

i saw robert hood at the last atomic jam, it was one of the best sets i have ever heard... beautifully crafted set and fantastic mixing to boot

sadly it was almost ruined by some of the residents who don't exactly stick to a music policy no matter who is playing..

he played stings of life and it made me smile