Landcruising

Over the nine tracks of Carl Craig’s debut artist album from 1995, he stakes out his take on techno, combining futurist rhythms that go beyond the standard drum sounds and patterns, elegiac strings, mournful chords, minor key melodies and atmospheric soundscapes into a rich, emotive, twinkling soundtrack. There’s an overriding sense of melancholy and isolation to many of the tracks, Craig doing a superb job of creating and manipulating mood through carefully arranged competing and complementary synth sounds and in contrast to the minimalism of many of his Detroit compatriots, Landcruising is full of ornate, epic musical moments.