In 1994 UK techno was rocked to its turbo-jockeys by the arrival of a double-vinyl missile from deepest Detroit called Minimal Nation. Underground Resistance had already established themselves as mysterious messengers of electronic dance music in its purest form, but when breakaway member Robert Hood stripped the music to its skeleton to create his ‘heart-felt rhythmic techno sound’ he struck a mass nerve and defined a genre which has flourished and mutated ever since. Hood’s less-is-more ethic relentlessly copied with varying success by many who didn’t realise that the album was intended as a statement against the clichés riddling dance music. His secret weapons were his innate grasp of The Funk, which imbues every brutal riff and percussive lunge, and ability to inject emotion, like the swelling chords on ‘Sleep Cycle'[whose melon-scything helicopter noise deserves a mention]. Of course he didn’t invent just using a drum machine and synth – that had been going on in acid house for donkey’s – but this came like a spring clean of clichés and readjustment, plus tracks like ‘Rhythm Of Vision’ rocked like a hippo-fucker on a big system. This true milestone is now being reissued on Hood’s reactivated M-Plant imprint, expanded with the previously-unreleased SH-101, rare Axis promo ‘Self-Powered’ and original version of ‘Rhythm Of Vision’ [complete with voice], plus a mix CD of album tracks and highlights from Hood’s extensive catalogue. Despite starting a trend the music still sounds unique, changing history by erasing it and starting again, as ever with a butt-storming beat.
5 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Kris Needs
