''Internal Empire'' is an album by American

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

ian

Robert Hood Robert Hood (born 1965 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American electronic music producer and DJ. He is a founding member of the group Underground Resistance as a 'Minister of Information' with Mad Mike Banks and Jeff Mills. He is often conside ...

. It was released in 1994 through Tresor, as a follow-up to ''

Minimal Nation ''Minimal Nation'' is an album by American electronic musician Robert Hood. Released in 1994 through Jeff Mills' Axis Records label, it is considered a landmark release in the techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is ...

'', released in the same year. The album showcases a further development on Hood's minimal sound, as well as departure from his collaborations with

Underground Resistance Underground Resistance (commonly abbreviated to UR) are an American musical collective from Detroit, Michigan. Producing primarily Detroit techno since 1990 with a grungy four-track musical aesthetic, they are also renowned for their militant p ...

. Alongside ''Minimal Nation'', the album is cited as one of the important works in

minimal techno Minimal techno is a subgenre of techno music. It is characterized by a stripped-down aesthetic that exploits the use of repetition and understated development. Minimal techno is thought to have been originally developed in the early 1990s by Detro ...

genre. The album was reissued by Tresor in 2019, as a part of its 25th anniversary. It was previously reissued by the label in 1998. The label

Minus The plus and minus signs, and , are mathematical symbols used to represent the notions of positive and negative, respectively. In addition, represents the operation of addition, which results in a sum, while represents subtraction, resulti ...

takes its name from the namesake track from the record.

Background

On the album's recording, Hood stated that he was faced with the challenge of producing a follow-up to ''Minimal Nation''; he subsequently cancelled his tour dates and recorded ''Internal Empire'' on his living studio. On the sound, he has stated: Previously, Hood also reported that he had embraced the minimal sound evidenced on the record and its companions innately, further adding that the "chordy, organistic, really stripped down minimal sound" was "natural for me im"

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

's John Bush stated that the record "defines his ood's/nowiki> minimalist manifesto, with a conventional four-four beat underpinning series of skeletal machine effects." Jake Cole of Spectrum Culture labeled the album as "perhaps the definitive moment of his ood's/nowiki> career" and "watershed establishment of an electronic music so bare that it has ironically left enough space to explore, making it a still relevant subgenre." Cole also noted that "the sharper sonic clarity f the record/nowiki> only deepens one’s appreciation for the subtle density of Hood’s minimal sound."

Resident Advisor ''Resident Advisor'' (also known as ''RA'') is an online music magazine and community platform dedicated to showcasing electronic music, artists and events across the globe. It was established in 2001. ''RA''s editorial team provides news, musi ...

's Lee Smith described ''Internal Empire'' as "truly the first

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

record that deserved to be called 'minimal'."

Tracklist

;1994 CD version # "Intro" — 1:30 # "Master Builder" — 3:32 # "Parade" — 5:09 # "Within" — 3:11 # "Minus" — 5:24 # "Internal Empire" — 3:25 # "Home" — 7:32 # "Multiple Silence" — 4:36 # "Spirit Levels" — 5:06 # "The Core" — 3:56 # "Chase" — 5:59 ;1994 vinyl version # "Internal Empire" # "Minus" # "Within" # "Home" # "Rek" # "Chase" # "Spirit Levels"

Credits

Album credits as adapted from 1994 CD liner notes: * Robert Hood — music * Constructure — design

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1994 albums Robert Hood albums