For someone whose nickname during his Underground Resistance years was “Noise,” Robert Hood sure has been quiet of late. It’s especially odd considering that the aggressive, stripped-down sound he helped pioneer has been so in vogue of late. His only release in 2005 was Hoodmusic 1, and its taken him a year to follow it up with this three-tracker (one of which is a remix by latter-day UR commandos Los Hermanos). Luckily, these two new tracks are crackling returns to form: the tough, menacing “Still Hear” (a message-sending pun of a title) sends shivers with its stormtrooper jack-beats and short, tight loops of cosmic fury, while “School” is a bit funkier and spacious but constructed on the same familiar building blocks. The Los Hermanos remix of “Still Hear” (by Gerald Mitchell this time out) puts some layers of their trademarked Latin percussion in it, and the melding of conga and sci-fi proves to be most effective. Here’s hoping we hear some more Noise in 2007.

Music Man / MM 127
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[Todd Hutlock]