Carl Craig ‎– The Album Formerly Known As...

Not much more needs saying about the aesthetic quality and standard of this LP I feel - it's nothing short of magnificent: shiver down the back of the spine stuff, throughout.

Just a point about the _audio_ quality. I'm curious about the unmistakable 'crunchy' although otherwise technically excellent quality of the 'sound'. It seems evident on most of the tracks save for 'One Day Soon (Version)' and 'Landcruising (Version)'. It reminds me of mucking about many years ago with digital recording and many different sample sizes and sample rates. These somewhat harsher sounding tracks seem to have been recorded or finished in something other than 16-bit 44Khz: so-called CD quality. Hints of aesthetic intent? It does aid the 'surface' retro flavor of this, in a good way, I think. Or perhaps, bearing in mind that this is after all a revamped version of an LP made ten years earlier, it's a trace of the sound of older digital recording technology. 24/bit 96KHz, simply didn't exist back then, certainly not for a burgeoning electronic music producer in Detroit. So no need to adjust your set. Just marvel at how good it sounds, in all ways, despite the limitations of the tech available when it was made.

I've still got my original on CD, but desperately wanted the LP version, and then I heard about this release. I was initially concerned about the 'Versions', but my fears were unfounded as the master Carl Craig tweaks, expands and subtley re-shapes the originals whilst all the time keeping the soul of the whole album firmly intact. Highly recommended, both to owners of Landcruising, and to those who have never even heard of it. A worthy classic given a spring clean. Nice one CC.