Robert Hood

There are few names as synonymous with techno music as Robert Hood's. The former Underground Resistance member has helped shaped the scene as we know it today and without his output, dance music wouldn't be the same.

Everything he releases - whether it's through labels like Tresor, Axis, Music Man, Peacefrog or via his own incredible M-Plant imprint - is always of a gold standard and his minimal yet heavy-hitting Detroit sound is unmistakably his own. Legend is a term banded about loosely in dance music but if anyone is fully-deserving of the title, it's Robert.

Over the last few years, Hood has experienced somewhat of a renaissance period. Of course he's been at the top of his game since the early 90s but with more worldwide gigs than ever before and a newly-enhanced arsenal of techno weaponry, he's once again at the forefront of the scene. His 2013 'Paradise' album under his Floorplan alias channelled the sounds of gospel and soul with a steely edge and it contained some of the year's stand-out tracks.

Three years on, cuts like 'Never Grow Old' and it's Re-Plant, 'Baby Baby' and 'Confess' are still getting played by the biggest and the best and whipping dancefloors into frenzies but now comes the year where Hood will truly takeover.

He will release a second album as Floorplan in June, this time joining forces with his daugther Lyric and we're confident it's going to be one of the LPs of the year. Before that, though, he heads over to Dekmantel for a new project called 'Paradygm Shift'.

Robert Hood on Dekmantel couldn't be a better fit, either. The Dutch club-brand and record label has shot to prominence over the last three years with an outstanding sell-out festival in Amsterdam, a worldwide tour with artists like Tale Of Us and Matrixxmann, and a label responsible for releases from Tom Trago, Palms Trax and Fatima Yamaha, who re-issued the world-conquering 'What's A Girl To Do' last year.

Hood will release three EPs and an album on Dekmantel, with the first volume dropping next week and he'll be taking things back to his roots. "I want to get back to the simple repetitive programming that I’m known for, and to me it was returning to that, but shifting the listeners’ focus and not staying on this plane like we are used to,” he says.

We have the premiere of 'Lockers' and it's classic, rib-shaking Hood. From the first beat you're drawn in with pulsating riffs, thick, weighted kicks and fierce, groove-inducing snares. Before the melodic sound of Floorplan hits, let's go back to where it all began and who better to take us there than the king himself.

'Paradygm Shift Volume One' will be released on February 22 via Dekmantel

Funster is Mixmag's Digital Music Editor, follow him on Twitter