Detroit techno pioneer Robert Hood began releasing music in the early ’90s, both as a solo artist and as part of the Underground Resistance collective. This 2010 release is a concept album that maps the 1971 apocalyptic horror film The Omega Man onto modern-day Detroit; it’s a soundtrack for driving through blasted urban wastelands by night, and its minimalism — one-finger synth pulses, ticking hi-hats, oozing background noises — is both seductive and frightening. Hood is taking the listener as far from the exultation of the dancefloor as possible; Omega is some of the most paranoid techno ever made. Try to get through “Towns That Disappeared Completely” without looking over your shoulder.

– Phil Freeman