Robert Hood and Radio Slave team up for Rekids' 300th release
Robert Hood and Radio Slave release 'Radio Hood' on Rekids on October 16, 2026. The double A-side 12-inch, catalogue number REKIDS300, is the label's 300th release and marks its 20th anniversary. It is the first collaboration between the Detroit producer and Radio Slave, real name Matt Edwards, who co-founded Rekids in 2006.
Twenty years and 300 catalogue numbers in, Rekids is marking the milestone the old-fashioned way: with a 12-inch. 'Radio Hood', out October 16, pairs Detroit's Robert Hood with the label's co-founder Matt Edwards, better known as Radio Slave, on record for the first time. It carries the catalogue number REKIDS300 and doubles as the centrepiece of the label's 20th anniversary.
The surprise is the sound. Hood is widely credited as one of the founders of minimal techno, from his Underground Resistance years to the M-Plant label he started in 1994, and Radio Slave built his name on lean, hypnotic grooves. Here both push the other way. The A-side rides insistent synth stabs from the first bar to the last, while 'Radio Hood (Version)' stretches to nine minutes and 52 seconds of sweeping strings over a low Reece bassline. The label credits the Version mix to Matthew Styles at Horizontal Studios.
It is also Hood's first release since The Blueprint EP in 2021, and it extends a relationship with Rekids that goes back more than a decade: his 2015 remix work on Radio Slave's 'Don't Stop No Sleep', Floorplan remixes in 2017, two EPs and the Mirror Man album across 2020 and 2021. Hood described the session as a privilege and put it down to two creative minds lining up, adding that when that happens "miraculous things can happen".
Rekids was set up in 2006 by Edwards and James Masters and has since released music from Nina Kraviz, Peggy Gou, Mr G, Eddie Fowlkes and DJ Deep. The anniversary year has lived on the road as much as on wax, with Rekids 20 parties including a Miami Music Week pool party in March and House of Rekids nights at FVTVR in Paris and Ampere in Antwerp.
For artists and managers, the lesson is in the packaging. A milestone catalogue number, a first-time pairing and a vinyl-led double A-side give a label a story that works in record shops, DJ bags and press inboxes at the same time. Independent labels approaching their own round numbers can borrow the formula: bring in a heritage name, give them a reason to sound different, and let the release anchor a season of events rather than a single launch night.