Rating: 9 / Format: CD / Label: M-Plant
This special edition of an LP that brought attention to a new aesthetic in techno couldn’t have come at a better time. The original minimal album, Minimal Nation sounds like punk compared to what minimal means in 2009: a vision of hedonistic, wasted bohemian youth listening to gentle, anodyne prog-rock length tracks. A founding member of Underground Resistance, Hood’s album also contrasted strongly when originally released in 1994, slashing through the jazzy opulence of Detroit’s second wave of producers, and the exhausted drug-drone of what hardcore had become by that time, with a fierce righteousness.
Hood’s music pairs down "the funk" into rich, bright sonic pulses over martial kick drums. Don’t think for a second that sounds easy: as scores of mid 90’s copyists found out to their own discredit, it takes a talent like Hoods to get the formula right, which is why Minimal Nation sounds as fresh now as it did the day it first came out. Each track consists of rolling riffs that stammer and bounce across the metronomic rhythm, breaking the momentum with tiny synapse snapping manipulations. It’s as direct as psychedelic music gets, as this is what Minimal Nation really is; one element for your feet and one for your brain to trick your feet into dancing.
Restored to its optimum track listing, featuring several tracks that were originally missed off, and remastered to give it a brightness and clarity it didn’t have before, this is definitely an album in need of a second listen.
Marcus Scott
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