More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art

Album Review

After conquering the dancefloor during 1995-1996 with his Paperclip People project, Carl Craig turned back to the electronic mood music of Landcruising and created a work of gorgeous, exquisite electronic listening music. It's a difficult record to digest, but more deserving of Jeff Mills' oft-quoted tag concerning techno being something you've never heard before than any techno record of the '90s. Craig largely wrote his own production playbook, seemingly taking the words written on the cover as a challenge: "Revolutionary art is determined...by how much it revolutionises our thinking and imagination; overturning our preconceptions, bias and prejudice and inspiring us to change ourselves and the world." After a short introduction, "Televised Green Smoke" floats in on a haze, working through the classic blueprint of dance music — the gradual addition of layered, complementary elements — until it reaches a soft peak. "Red Lights" works a slow-grind breakbeat, cycling through the Paperclip People oscillator with strings in the background and an atmosphere reminiscent of The Godfather. "Dreamland" and "Butterfly" are closer to "traditional" Detroit productions, sharp and focused but rather melancholy; the former is a reach-out to the British-Detroit axis (As One, Black Dog, B12), while the latter evokes the classic late-'80s productions of Craig's friend Derrick May (who co-produced a later track, "Frustration"). The Maurizio dub "Dominas" is nocturnal and unhurried, even despite the insistent beat and a female vocal sample repeating the title one word after another. Another classic, "At Les," balances a few gently cascading chords with a rhythm program that keeps pushing the track forward and faster. More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art thumbs its nose at the growing ranks of intelligent techno blowhards, and arguably bests anything the IDM crowd mustered before or after it.